COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, April 9, 2024 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS J. JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK F. SQUILLA COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 240179, 240180, 240181, 240182 RESOLUTION: 240193
This is the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 240179, 240180, 240181, 240182 and Resolution No. 240193. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll to take attendance.
I also want to acknowledge the presence of Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson. Thank you. A quorum of this Committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the titles of the resolutions.
Bill No. 6 240179, an ordinance to adopt the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Bill No. 240180, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to provide for an increase in the tax that the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia is authorized to impose on real estate, and amending Chapter 18 19-1300, entitled "Real Estate Taxes," to establish an equivalent reduction in the tax rate for the City real estate tax, and making technical changes, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 240181, an ordinance to adopt a Fiscal Year 2025 Capital Budget. Bill No. 240182, an ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years 2025, 2030 inclusive. Resolution No. 240193, providing for the approval by the Council of the City of Philadelphia of a revised Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Philadelphia covering Fiscal Years 2025 through 2029, and incorporating revisions with respect to Fiscal Year 2024 which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement by and between the City and the Authority.
Today we will continue the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider the bills read by the Clerk that constitute proposed operating and capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2025, a Capital Program and a Forward- looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2025 through Fiscal Year 2030. This morning we will hear the testimony from the Philadelphia Police Department and the Philadelphia Prisons. This afternoon we will continue with the testimony from the Fire Department and Licenses and Inspections. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first witness to testify from the Administration.
The first person to testify is Kevin Bethel, Police Commissioner. ) COMMISSIONER BETHEL: All right. Thank you. Thank you, President. And before I want -- coming to these budget meetings, sometimes you forget the people behind the scenes, but I do want to give Sabrina Browess behind us, she's not going to be up here but is working our numbers for us. And so, I'm not an accountant so I definitely appreciate the support that she gives us in this work. So good morning, President Johnson, members of City Council and colleagues. I stand before you today not just as the Police Commissioner but as a fellow citizen deeply committed to the fabric of our great city, Philadelphia. Joining me are key figures of my leadership team, John Stanford who's the First Deputy Commissioner; Francis Healy who's the Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Staff, an accountant and attorney which is always great; Krista Dahl-Campbell, who's Deputy Commissioner of Organizational Services. Each of them along with my entire executive team that you see on the front row and commanders play a pivotal role in our organization. Before we delve into the specifics of the budget and the strategic initiatives, I want to take a moment to commend the sworn men and women of the Philadelphia Police Department along with my incredible nonsworn professional staff for your dedication, your resilience and your unwavering service. I do want to thank the men and women in this police department and our nonsworn professional staff for the work they do each and every day. Your efforts are the backbone of our mission to create a safer Philadelphia. I'm proudly grateful for your hard work, your sacrifice and your dedication to our city. Together we are making a difference and I want you to know that your contributions are deeply valued and appreciated. I also want to thank the citizens of Philadelphia. I'll say it again. I want to thank the citizens of Philadelphia and our community partners who have continued to support us in our efforts to create a safer city. And I also want to thank Mayor Parker for giving me the opportunity to come back to lead this fine organization. I'll say that again. I want to thank this Mayor for allowing me to do that. The Mayor's unwavering support of our department's men and women is invaluable and deeply appreciated. Our focus centers on the police department's Fiscal 2025 operating budget, which outlines our strategic vision not only for our department but also the safety and well-being of every Philadelphian under Mayor Parker's leadership. Our collective vision centers on creating a Philadelphia that is not only safer but also cleaner and greener. The vision aligns with the Mayor's Executive Order which underscores public safety emergencies that affect us all. It declares unequivocally that every resident deserves to live in an environment marked by order and peace. This vision demands our commitment, a commitment to safety and trust as cornerstones of our operation. Our strategy realizes the vision is twofold: Leveraging cutting-edge technology and honing the skills of our dedicated personnel by embracing evidence- based policing. We assure you that our strategies are informed by real-time data, intelligence and proven practices. This approach builds on successes we've achieved in crime violence reduction during my time when I was here in the Philadelphia Police Department as Deputy Commissioner of Operations. It is comprehensive, focused on prevention, intervention and enforcement. These efforts are critical in our mission to combat gun violence and elevate the equality of life for everyone in Philadelphia. The journey ahead remains formidable, but our resolve is unwavering.
Together with Adam Geer, the Director of our Public Safety Managing Director, and I believe Adam is here today back there, thank you for being here; Adam Thiel, our Managing Director; and our community partners and colleagues at all levels of government, we are committed to this fight. Our five-year strategic plan will follow our 100-day plan, which will lay the long-term foundation for our overarching goals in crime and violence reduction. It will emphasize community partnership, operational efficiency and strategic use of technology. Importantly, it reaffirms our commitment to be transparent in communications, ensuring that our strategies are understood and embraced by the community we serve. In addition, we're expected to highlight several key initiatives that underscore our commitment to community engagement and support. In our 2025 budget we are introducing for the first time nonsworn victim advocates to assist the families of homicide victims and individuals tragically killed in auto accidents, ensuring that they receive the compassionate support they need during such devastating times. Furthermore, we're establishing nonsworn professional staff community liaisons to help with strengthening the bonds between our department and the communities we serve. Under leadership of Commissioner Deputy Myesha Massey, we're also proud to announce the creation of the Community Partnership Bureau, a new arm of the department dedicating to foster collaboration and understanding between police and Philadelphia's diverse communities. The Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal before you is designed to meet our critical needs in our ongoing battle. It supports our strategic objectives and lays the groundwork for further investments in our people and technology. We are grateful to the Mayor's investment in the department. We also recognize that advancing our department effectively to meet the goals, needs of our personnel, we must look beyond our standard budget allocations. Currently 96 percent of our budget is dedicated to staffing. As a result, seeking external funding from state, federal and nonprofit organizations become not just a strategy but a necessity. These additional funds enable us to invest in new technologies, training programs and resources that support our officers in the field, enhance our operations capabilities and ultimately better serve our community. This approach allows us to innovate and improve without compromising the support and resources needed by the men and women dedicated to making Philadelphia safer. An example of this activity is the recent reprogramming of grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and the American Rescue Funds, which allows us to significantly enhance our operational capacity. Through these grants, we are purchasing a much-needed records management system to transition to paperless operations. Through a phase implementation process, we'll be adding in-car cameras to all of our vehicles. We'll also be introducing sensors to our gun holsters that will automatically activate the body cameras when an officer draws their gun. This complements the current advancements that activate the body-worn cameras when their tasers are pulled from their holster. Last, we're exploring the use of video technology to rapidly respond to offenses not in progress to better connect with victims and streamline response capabilities. In conclusion, the challenges we face are formidable, but our determination matches the magnitude of these challenges. With your collaboration and backing, we are poised to embark on a transformative journey that will lead us to a safer, more secure Philadelphia. I am grateful for your attention and for your support that enable us to pursue these critical issues. Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to speak.
Thank you. And it's always an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to work with you. And I want to officially just say welcome back and thank you for signing up to be a public servant as it relates to making this great city of Philadelphia a safer, cleaner, greener city with economic opportunity for everyone. I also want to thank your support team and all of the members of the Philadelphia Police Department for your hard work and your dedication to making sure that we have a safe city. Most of you I've had an opportunity to work with. And I also recognize that because you put your lives on the line every single day, there's no 9 guarantee when you leave work that you'll return home to your families. And so, I just want to personally just say thank you. And now, we'll begin our questioning. Commissioner Bethel, you talk about in your presentation a homicide clearance rate targeted at 65 percent. I just want to get an idea of your strategy to achieve that target as well as give me an update on nonfatal shootings and how we're going to accomplish that target. I know I just recently talked to you and you gave me some data on it. It may not feel like it sometimes, but we are trending in the right direction when it comes to shootings and homicides. And so, give us an overview of where we're at in terms of how we're accomplishing it. And what do you think has contributed to that 35 percent decrease, but also your strategy on achieving the 65 percent target rate for homicides and also how we're addressing nonfatal shootings? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So I appreciate that question, Mr. President. So first, let me outline the numbers because you raised a very good point. I think the numbers have been naturally trending down across the nation for about a year and a half, over two years now. We can see that the numbers are trending back to pre-COVID numbers from before. And obviously, the department had numbers almost 562 which was an extreme high number. So we can see that, but we also see through the dedicated work of the men and women working in partnership with our community partners and others across the City. The goal now is not to just be satisfied with that. Coming back to 370 or 50 homicides is not acceptable. And so, we say that as well. So part of our work now is really being intentional around that. But let me set the numbers that you rightfully raised. We're 34 percent down in our homicides this year. What does that mean? We had 114 individuals unfortunately killed last year, 75 this year. But more importantly what is also really exciting to see is we have a significant level of drop in our key areas. Our juvenile violence is down, rates on homicides by 40 percent as well as our bracket of to 34 years old is significantly down as well 40 percent. And so, that is significant when we see the area of focus coming down as well. That sets us for a great trend. And our shootings were down 42 percent of our shootings over last year which is also significant, from 455 this time last year to 260. But there's also other fences that we don't talk about. We're down percent in 14 our robberies and we're down 28 15 percent in our rapes. And so, 16 we're seeing a trend not just in 17 our violence but crime overall. 18 And so, part of our work clearly when we have incidents where numbers are coming down at the level they are, it also gives the men and women in Homicide and others to work more effectively and to be able to spend a lot more time in those cases than they would ordinarily when we were at 562. It was a substantial number of cases assigned to those detectives. So we are seeing -- Commissioner Vanore and his team are working hard to make sure that we're pushing in those spaces. We have our Shooting Investigation Group that has been very, very laser-focused on our incidents, our shooting incidents.
I believe that clearance rate is about close to 30 percent in those clearances which is significant for those types of shootings. And often times they can be in the singles or low 20s. And so, we see that as having an impact on our violence. 4 percent in our clearances for our nonfatal shootings. But there is a a lot of -- we're being very laser- focused. At the end of the day, 10 districts in the City of Philadelphia represent 80 percent of the violence. So out of -- 3
4 Is it -- 5 COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, 6 sir. 7
8 Just for clarity, 10 districts? 9 COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes. 10 10 police districts represent 80 11 percent of our violent crime across 12 the City. 13
14 Is part of those 10 districts -- is 15 it 57 blocks or more within those 16 10 districts? 17 COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So 18 the 50 -- I understand the theory 19 around the initial article around 20 57 blocks, but it has to be and you 21 have to be informed by really good data and you also have to be informed by a continuum of that data. 57 blocks, most of the 57 blocks that we see today that were described in that article are not in that equation as we look at a focus area. We can see that there's almost 800-plus, almost 890 blocks across the City if you really want to really focus in on where we have significant levels of violence. And so, the theory around looking at blocks are key, but those things are fluid. Those things can change year-to-year. For example, we had an unfortunate shooting at Rising Sun and Cottman where we had eight individuals who were shot there. Well, that statistic if you use that as a sole statistic moving forward, you would think that you would be deploying significantly. But we know that was an incident at that spot which normally does not see a level of violence. And so, part of the data, if we're going to be data-informed as an organization, as a city, we have to constantly be re-evaluating what that looks like, shifting our resources. So within those 5 districts that I described, we can 6 also look at 10 areas of the City 7 that represents 33 percent of that 8 violence. And so, part of our work 9 as an organization is to be really, 10 really laser-focused on those specific areas. And in aligning our work, I've met with Director Geer around focusing their work in those areas, GVI, Group Violence Initiative, having them focus in those specific areas where we can make significant impacts.
Couple other questions in terms of the comprehensive approach that you're laying out now which is refreshing: I led the effort to create the Office of Victim Advocates just to make sure that the mothers and fathers and family members who have lost loved ones to senseless gun violence have a particular office in the City of Philadelphia that's advocating on their behalf. And so, you talk about adding as a part of your portfolio hiring victim advocates as well as community liaisons and also creating a division to deal with community partnerships, and the last part was Bureau -- I didn't see the last part of the initiative that you also talked about, but just elaborate more on that aspect being more community-driven as a way to address gun violence and public safety. And also, Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier always talks about us having to be very, very intentional with our resources, particularly in those areas where we see high crime and gun violence like comprehensively flooding those particular areas as a way to try to contain and address the overall issues that we see that result in crime and violence. And a lot of it is not even police officer-related. It's really just quality-of-life issues and just how people are just dealing with different struggles of life. And so, give us an overview and elaborate on those key four areas that you're going to be introducing under your new administration. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So thank you again, Mr. President. So part of -- I think one of the unique opportunities I had to do was to step away from the department. For almost seven years I was away from the department. My viewpoint was changed as to how we and I was actually even viewing policing at that time. And recognize even sitting in my Office of School Safety, the Chief of School Safety, it would be the first time I was on the fear of crime side and the victim of crime because I'm not the person in charge of working to stop the issues, but it really was a policing situation, but also recognizing from a viewpoint that there was this gap. The constant conversation about how we as a police department really, really connect with our community. And one of the things I would often follow is where the homicides and the constant railing against the homicide detectives not following up with parents. Meeting with Dr. Dorothy-Speight, Chantay Love, EMIR and Mothers in Charge and hearing those complaints, even most recently meeting with them and members of my executive team. John Stanford was there as well as Francis and others. It's really how do we fill that gap and not sit on the sidelines and just understand. And so, part of that was if we brought victim advocates into the police department where we can have an immediate hand-off for those families and not just those, we have victims of hit-and-runs, we have deaths that come from them as well. And we have a Victim Assistance Officer who does an amazing job, one person. What happens when you bring 10 individuals and somebody who's leading that work into that space. So when we have someone who has an unfortunate death, I'm able to have that victim advocate work with our exterior partners, working with City victim -- so this is not a carve-out to not work with others. This is someone to build the bridge with the City victim advocates that you created with the programs that are out there, all of victim services programs, so we finally have somebody. So when a parent calls and says I want to know about what happened, they may have a hard time getting a detective. But if they have Kevin Bethel as their advocate and they're going to stay with him throughout the whole process, even if he retires, right, even when the detective retires, we'll have that base of victim advocates to build that connectivity with those families. That is our duty and our responsibility as a forward- thinking and an empathetic organization to do that.
And so, that's what we -- and part of what we're going to do and I'll be very humble in this room, I don't know that space. So part of what I've asked those folks, I've asked Dr. Dorothy Speight, I've asked Chantay Love to come into that space to help us build it appropriately, how do we make sure we're connected to the right services and making sure that -- and having those families in that space as well so they know that we're doing what we say we're supposed to do.
I think that's very, very key in terms of the interaction between the detectives and the actual families, right. I've been doing this work for a while. And just making sure that part of that strategy addresses the sensitivity, right, of the issue and the relationship between the detective and the families who lost their loved ones is one that's conducive for support of the individual family members who have lost their loved one in terms of how the individuals in the Homicide Unit move forward. Will you be expanding the number of individuals who will be working in that Homicide Unit as well as the technology? We've heard -- this is prior to you -- the need for cell phones, the need for computers. Tell us about how you're going to upgrade and bring more technology, particularly inside that Homicide Unit more than anything else. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Commissioner Vanore and his team have done an excellent job. You will see in this budget, we won't get into the specific technology capabilities in the room because of the sensitivity of it, but if we get what we need from this budget as well as the things that I describe in the budget, we will be on par with our federal partners in our ability to work technology, particularly as it relates to phones. We will be on par with those to be able to do some very highly effective investigations both with the technology in that space but also with our video technology. We are primed and prepared. We have the base of it now. We have some technology needs. But what you're seeing in the budget and what we've actually even added some of that into our PCCD grant, we will be a formidable organization in the United States of America being able to use that technology. And not just in that space as well. We have victims who are robbed. We have other victims of other incidents that we see as we build out our model to be able to use that technology across a variety of incidents. It's clear we use it now in our Shooting Investigation Group. We use that highly effectively. But we see as the technology continues to advance, we see that being able to expand. And even when we think about cold cases, some of the things we can do with the technology today, with this technology we'll be able to re-engage and look at other cases. I know you also talked about community partnerships. Part of what I also wanted to do, there's a model out of LAPD in which they use police officers to create the community partnership. I took the decision to make a different approach. I worked on consent decrees both in Newark -- federal consent decrees in Newark and Baltimore. And what I did at that time as someone who was evaluating those departments would meet individuals who were hired in the community to build bridges as we were implementing the federal consent decree. It was an absolutely incredible experience. I met some phenomenal people who knew the neighborhood, who knew how to build bridges. When I wanted to take a meeting, I called them and met with 50 people in the room. And so, what I brought to the department now was that ability that if we're going to be community policing, we have to have community in the room 16 working with us. And so, bringing in individuals to build those bridges in our community and help us -- not a community relations officer, but much more advanced, much more engaged. And that's why I was honored to bring in Commissioner Myesha Massey from 35th District who really, really understood. I'm changing the name from community relations to community partnerships. I have partnerships in this room. I want partnerships in the community. I don't want to be walking by and saying hi. I want you to be sitting in the room 8 building partnerships, getting to understand each other and seeing what those needs are. And that's what I've tasked Commissioner Massey, but my entire executive team and all of us included up here to help build that.
What's your team's approach going after those who sell illegal guns to our young people, ghost guns in particular and guns in general, our overall strategy? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We have been working collaboratively with the DA's Gun Violence Task Force. We see that as a place where we can now start to refine our work. We know that we took over 2500 gun arrests last year and we're already on that pace to be exactly where we are from last year. We recovered 6,000 guns last year as well. We're running into some challenges just before we even get to the DA's Office with certain legal parameters that are now set in place. There's a Hicks Act that Fran can get into. I won't get into the specifics here, but there's other layers of issues that are causing some roadblocks as we even do our gun enforcement from a legal perspective and from certain case law that has been set down recently that have made it even more challenging for our men and women. Like you could technically have an illegal gun but it's not illegal unless you do certain things. It's absolutely -- my attorney would have to share that with you. And so, that's one roadblock. We actually just met with the DA's Office to really start on how we train our men and women on how to be more effective when they're testifying, how they go about that process. The second part is working with the DA's Office. We have been working together to be really focused on what these gun offenses are. We have some challenges as we need to make sure our men and women are doing, you know, testifying because there's so many hurdles. But we believe we have an effective strategy. The men and women are doing a phenomenal job. Despite all of the challenges, their resilience, could not be more proud of them to be able to get 2500 crime guns, people who are carrying guns in our City. It's a significant task. Each time they do that, they put themselves at risk. And so, I'm proud of that. But I think as we hone in and be focused on those areas that you talked about, I talked about, I think we can have an impact on them.
How is your team working in partnership with the Philadelphia School District? I know that's where you recently came from and the need to keep our young people safe. What's the strategy, partnerships, overall gameplan to basically keep our young people safe going to and from school, but also you know as well as I do within that school environment we see a lot of the neighborhood turf wars and social media beefs spilling out into the streets and also inside our school system? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So we have, as you know me being on the other side for the last four years, built a phenomenal relationship with the Philadelphia Police Department. First and foremost, we start by deploying our Philadelphia police officers into our schools. So all of our schools have some contact with the Philadelphia police officers. I believe we have about 68 officers assigned to do that as our first line of defense. And they also initiate the Diversion program which has gone extremely well over the last 10 years.
Could you clarify for the record the Diversion program because some folks may think we're all law enforcement and trying to lock everybody up? What is the Diversion program you're referring to? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. You know I appreciate that question, right. In 2014 before I left the police department, I had created a Police School Diversion program after we saw that over 1,600 kids are being locked up every year in the City of Philadelphia in the School District. 70 percent of those offenses were for low-level offenses. Minority -- majority of those kids were kids of color. And so, as I had the opportunity to travel across the country looking at the issues and the situations around the development approach of our young people, the issues, the disparities as it relates to arrests and the like, we would come back and create a program. Today I'm very thankful to Commissioner Ramsey and Commissioner Ross who let us institute the program. 2014 we would initiate a program where we would no longer lock up children in the School District of Philadelphia for a certain number of enumerated offenses, low-level offenses. The Department of Human Services Commissioner Ali who was there now, who was even there when we started this process, I'm so grateful to them. They would provide the programs for that. And so, every time a child would come in the school for a low-level offense who would be cuffed and taken away and put in a cell block and then go before the court or in many cases get a youth aide panel, we were able to address that but also address the trauma. What was it like to take a 10-year-old child into a cell block. If you don't know what it was like, I did it to my 11-year- old daughter and did a video because I wanted people to see what it looked like to put in an 11-year-old child. If I tell you what it felt like when I took my daughter who was only acting and put her in the cell block and said, why would I ever allow that to happen to somebody else's child. And so, that would be our charge. We were not going to let this happen to other children. We were not going to traumatize them. I'm really proud to say today, Mr. President, that we reduced the arrests by 90 percent. We had last year was about 145 kids who were arrested from a system that used to do 1600 kids a year. Many of those kids are African American, Latino kids and they deserve better. And so, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to talk about that because it's one of the most impactful things I've ever done in my life.
Thank you. I relax my time. The Chair recognizes the Chair of Public Safety Councilman Curtis Jones.
Thank you so much, Mr. President. And thank you for you and your team's approach to being a guardian versus an occupying force, and we can see the difference that it can make. Couple of questions in there based on the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia: You already have a lot of those questions, boxes checked. And we just want to kind of put on the record where we are within those responses. The first question I would have is how do you -- and it's similar to what the President asked -- integrate technology, integrate boots on the ground? The scenario I used earlier was that a kid's doing donuts in Squilla's District, jumps out of the car, jumps on the subway, goes up to Member Young's District, he doesn't like that, but gets out on Temple's campus, knocks over a kid, takes the bike, then runs into public housing. How do we like we did in the Macy's incident integrate both technology and boots on the ground? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I think one of the pleasures of coming back to the department is that we definitely have advanced in our technology. So one of the things you'll see in our system for our Genetec System that we have now -- I'm correcting that Genetec System that we have. I know Kevin Thomas is here. He's now the Executive Director leading my technology space. We have the ability now to see to -- we have about 6200 cameras that we have across the City. Around 2400 of them are our cameras. The rest are from our partners. We have the ability to access PennDOT. We work with SEPTA as it relates to their cameras. And we now are using a system that enables us to be able to integrate those cameras. A great example of that is the Philadelphia School District most recently. Before I left I was able to get a capital budget of $45 million to upgrade the School District's system to a better technology than they had. They were still working off a very old system. That technology though, the first thing we came to was the police department. What system can we make sure that we integrate those cameras with. And they said, use this Genetec System. That platform, the Genetec platform enables now once the School District gets those cameras on board, that we can be able to view those cameras. Now, we're not going to be able to look inside because of privacy issues, but should there be a significant incident in the school, we'll be able to go live, they'll be able to give us the link to see all of those schools.
Talk to me about license plate readers and drones. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So license plate readers, as you know in this body we did not have them. But to the work of the men and women, a grant that we received from the District Attorney's Office. It was a joint grant between the District Attorney's Office and PCCD, Philadelphia Commission on Crime and Delinquency. We are able, we're in the final stages of -- we will have 25 cameras on cars, but one of the unique things that Kevin Thomas and the team were able to do, we also have for the first time up to 200 stationary cameras -- I mean, license plate readers. So we'll be able to be picking off areas where we have high levels of stolen vehicles. So to your point when you start talking about the integration of if I have a car camera and somebody's in the car, I'm able to see that person with a body camera moving through the process. The number of cameras we have across the City, cameras with our partners, being able to use our license plate reader, all of that technology will start to give us this kind of feeling of connectivity over all of those entities. But we are making sure that everything we integrate -- so, for example, when I talked about the body cameras, with our new technology as you heard me describe my testimony when an officer pulls out his weapon, his sensor will go off, his body-worn camera, that integration. With our body cameras and with our in-car, it will even come to the point when I have my body camera on and theirs are off, theirs will automatically turn on. That is the way the technology is starting to integrate. So it will not be he forgot to turn his body camera on. In many cases as soon as you turn on the car, your body-worn camera will come on. As soon as you come out because of the Wi-Fi connectivity, all the cameras in that certain area will go on. If you look at our shotspotter or our gunshot detection, the model we have now, the cameras are integrated to be able to turn into the area where they're hearing potentially those gunshots. So all of that technology, sir, is continuing to evolve. But we're trying to get ahead of it, and that's why it's so important that the body supports us in our technology needs and we're looking for other grants so we can keep up with what's moving the nation forward.
And where are we at on recruitment and retention of boots-on-the-ground police officers? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, listen, I cannot be more proud of my recruitment team, my background team, my internal HR folks and most importantly, City OHR. What they have been able to do has been significant, particularly when we didn't have a class in 2020 at all. So what they have been able to do, which I'm extremely proud of, over the last -- they've been able to now develop a model where we're getting classes every six weeks. Now, right now we're getting close to 35 to 40. I can tell the body that's not good enough. We need literally 60 to 70 members to be in that class to be able to get our numbers, but at least now we're stabilizing our numbers. Had they not done that we would be having a different conversation today. So really, really proud of the team in doing that. Some of the things that they have done accelerating the processing now so they're getting the individuals within a week, two weeks after they're in that onboarding process. They're getting orientation, they're connecting them to a recruiter so they're not on an island by themselves which is absolutely phenomenal. So they're really, really working hard to do that. And so, I think as they evolve in that space of continuing to move the kids through in an effective way, we think we're going to make some significant inroads in our numbers.
And finally for my time, how are we on our vests for our officers? I understand that there's a time- aging process. And where are we in the rotation of rotating in new vests versus rotating out the old ones? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, I can -- yeah, go ahead. Okay. So I know we have a -- that hasn't changed, right. It's a five-year rotation. We start that rotation pretty regularly, right. On a regular basis, those vets are flowing through and changing over. And so, we have a system for that. No officer should ever -- I look to my right and to the left -- be out there with a vest that is not up to standard. That would be unacceptable, and there's absolutely no reason for us as an organization to allow that to happen. I do want to footnote back to recruiting. And one of the things I think was very unique is what the team did. Some of the stuff is often about policy, policy, right. We now give the reading test twice, right, and we now give those individuals a week after they apply, they get a flash card of how to help them study for the Nelson-Denny test. We've gone from a 30 percent completion rate to a 70 percent success rate, 70 percent, right. And also, with the changing of the physical standards we've been able to increase that by almost percent. And so, I think those things also, Councilman, is really going to leverage us to be able to -- and what we also can see many of the kids in our more challenging communities, we're getting some of the highest applications from. And so, those communities that we think don't want to become cops, that's just not true. And so, part of what we have to do now is get into that group of those areas and make sure that we're finding ways to onboard them. But it was really exciting to see that data, that many of our kids from our more challenging areas are applying for the test and want to come in the police department.
I'll wait for the second round for my remaining questions, Mr. President. Thank you.
You're welcome. And, Commissioner, when you're speaking, bring that microphone up just a little closer for the