COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE City Hall, Room 400 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, April 14, 2026 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE-RICHARDSON COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILMAN CURTIS J. JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS HELEN LOUGHEAD, The Clerk P R O C E E D I N G S
Good morning, everyone. This is the public hearing, a public meeting of the committee of the whole regarding Bill Nos. 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209, and Resolution Number 260227. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll and take attendance.
Present. Thank you, Ms. Loughead. A quorum of the committee is present and this hearing is now officially called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the title of the bills and resolutions.
Bill No. 24 260199, an ordinance adopting the operating budget for fiscal year 2027. Bill No. 260200, an ordinance to adopt a fiscal year 2027 capital budget. Bill No. 260201, an ordinance to adopt a capital program for the six fiscal years 2027 through 2032, inclusive. Bill No. 260202, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-2400 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled Hotel Room Rental Tax, by providing for an additional excise tax on hotel room rentals, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260203, an ordinance amending Subcode A of The Philadelphia Administrative Code, Title IV of the Philadelphia Code, The Building, Construction and Occupancy Code, by adding and revising zoning board of adjustment fees and provisions regarding hearing scheduling, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260204, an ordinance amending Title III of the Philadelphia Code, entitled Air Management Code, to modify the amounts of license and permit fees, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260205, an ordinance amending Section 19-1806 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax, to clarify the imposition of the tax on the use or occupancy of real estate with respect to cell towers, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260206, an ordinance amending Chapter 6-600 of the Philadelphia Code, Asbestos, by adding and revising provisions related to various fees, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260208, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled School Tax Authorization, to add a new section, 19-1808, entitled Authorization of Rideshare Use Tax, to authorize the Board of the School District of Philadelphia to levy a tax upon the use by a passenger of a transportation network company for a prearranged ride that originates in Philadelphia, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260209, an ordinance amending Title of the 16 Philadelphia Code, entitled Finance, 17 Taxes and Collections, to add a new 18 chapter, 19-4800, entitled Retail 19 Delivery Tax, to establish a tax on orders for the delivery in Philadelphia of retail consumer goods and other tangible goods, all under certain terms and conditions. And Resolution No. 260227, 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 2027 through 2031, and incorporating revisions with respect to fiscal year 2026, 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 hold the public hearing of the committee of the whole to consider the bills read by the clerk that constitute proposed operating capital spending measures for fiscal year 2027, a capital program and a forward-looking capital plan for fiscal year 2027 through fiscal year 2032. This morning, we have scheduled testimony from the Philadelphia Police Department and the Office of Public Safety. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first panel that testified from the administration.
The first panel to testify is Kevin Bethel, Police Commissioner, and Adam Geer, Chief Public Safety Director.
Thank you very much. Just state your name for the record, Commissioner, and you can begin your testimony. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you, President Johnson. Kevin Bethel, Philadelphia Police Commissioner. Good morning, Council President Johnson and members of City Council. Joining me today is my leadership team and those who are here to support me and the work we do to make the city of Philadelphia safe. Speaking of support, I want to recognize Mayor Parker for her leadership, her understanding, and her unwavering commitment to public safety. She gets it, ladies and gentlemen. From the campaign trail to her very first days in office, Mayor Parker made it clear that public safety wasn't going to be just about words on a page; it was going to be about real action and the foundation of the work we do every day. Her emergency declaration set the tone, and everything we've done since then, from our 100-day plan to the five-year strategic plan which I'll talk through today, goes directly to her prevention, intervention, and enforcement framework and the vision for this city. That support and her belief in the men and women of this department is why I say it again: we are the finest police department in the nation. I don't say that with an ego, nor do I say it with arrogance. I say it because we are mindful and purposeful in how we enforce the law, invest our money, train our workforce, build trust in the community, and partner with the only the real -- only the best, and rely -- and relay real-time data, utilize the most up-to-date technology, and most importantly, check on one another through a multi-tiered health and wellness program to make sure we are all doing okay. But we can't be the finest without the financial backing of City Council. You'll recognize and hear about the work you approved, each one of you, how big or small, helped move the Police Department forward. Councilman Jones, your blueprint for a safer Philadelphia assisted in our early work and continues to guide us today. Before I go any further, though, I want to ground this moment where it belongs: with the men and women of the Philadelphia Police Department.
That's right. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Every day, in every neighborhood, they show up, sometimes on someone's worst day, because they believe in the work, they believe in their city. They are officers, detectives, analysts, commanders, professional staff members across this organization who carry this work forward under difficult circumstances, with professionalism and with heart. And I'm going to acknowledge them and ask them to stand, because they sit behind me today. Stand up. I've always emphasized in this work; you don't do this work by yourself. Yeah. You do it with the men and women on the ground, and they're just a representative of that, and I'm so grateful for them. This budget, this process, this plan is an investment in them. If I can take a moment to recognize, and I did that with my men and women, you'll see that they are officers that patrol our neighborhoods every day, the detectives who work tireless to bring answers to families, forensic scientists and analysts who turn evidence into truth, professional staff who support operations, technology, communication, and strategy, and the leaders helping to move this department forward. They don't always get the spotlight, but they're essential to every bit of the progress we've made. And it's important that we recognize that public safety today is delivered not just by sworn offers, but a -- but a team of professionals working together. To those who are here today, we thank you. Your work matters, and this city is better because of you. And we're doing this work alone -- we're not doing this work alone. Public safety in Philadelphia is stronger because of partnerships, our intergovernmental partners, including, to my right, Chief Public Safety Director, Adam Geer, and members of his leadership team. I want to thank Director Geer for his collaboration and recognize the impact of Office of Public Safety, the coalition to save lives, helping to support and shape our strategy. The new Bower Family Foundation, whose investment is transformational, providing 45 members of this department the opportunity to pursue a master degree at Penn at no cost. The Philadelphia Police Foundation, who has always supported the men and women of this department, and our community-based organizations. This is not just support; that is belief in this department and this city, and together, we are seeing results. Philadelphia experienced one of the most significant reductions in violence in history. Historic decline in homicides, an 80 percent reduction since 2021. A meaningful reduction in shootings, a 77 percent reduction since 2021, and a stronger clearance rate. In 2020, we had a clearance rate of 42. Today, it is at 138 percent. But this is not about numbers; it is about fewer families experience loss. It's about a neighborhood beginning to feel relief. And that is about trust starting to return. But progress alone is not enough. The question before is, how do we sustain it? How do we build on it? How do we ensure we never go backwards? And that's why, over the past year, we've built together the first five-year strategic plan in the history of this department. We brought in more than 200 voices into that process: colleagues across the city government, officers from every rank, civilian staff, community members, advocates, business leaders, young people, and government partners. This was not symbolism; this was intentional. And at times, it was challenging, but this honest dialogue and there -- and there was tension, but that practice produced something powerful; alignment. Because we found is that both officers and our communities want the same things. They want apartment that is professional and well-trained. They want to be equipped with modern tools, supportive of this workforce, and generally connected to the people it serves. So we build a plan grounded in those priorities. " Let me say that 14 again. Compassion.
Because how we 15 -- police matter just as much as 16 what we accomplish. This plan 17 established our clear priorities: 18 strengthening community trust, 19 advancing technology and data-driven 20 policing, investing in our people 21 and our individual wellness, 22 improving communications and 23 transparency, and building a 24 sustainable organization for the future. But what makes this plan different is not just what it says, but how it will be executed. We're building infrastructure to carry it forward, projects managers to drive implementation, cross functional teams to break down silos, real time tracking to direct progress, and a commitment to align our budget directly to outcomes. This is where your partnership matters the most, because this budget is not separate from the plan; the budget is the plan in action. It supports the people doing the work, the tools they need, the partnership they extend our reach, and a system that ensures accountability. We're also being intentional in how we use our resources. We're asking officers to focus on what they uniquely are trained to do, bringing civilian professionals where specialized expertise is needed, because transformation requires the right people in the right roles. That includes deploying quality of life across every neighborhood, invest in community-based strategies, and strengthening diversion and victim supports. And one of the clearest examples of this approach is how we're working with our young people. When I started the diversion program 12 years ago, approximately 1600 youth were entering the juvenile justice system annually. Yet last year, that number dropped to 70. From 1600 to 70. That is transformational, ladies and gentlemen. Fewer young people are in the system, fewer families are being disrupted, more opportunities to intervene early and change life trajectories. That kind of impact only happens through strong inter-governmental collaboration. And our partnership with the Department of Human Services has been central in making that possible and been absolutely phenomenal. I also wanted to recognize Dr. Goldstein and Drexel University for the continued partnership, bringing research data and evidence- based practices into this work to help us drive real results. And we are building on that success as we expand our citywide diversion -- our diversion citywide use have already declined by more than percent. 18 This happens when you invest in 19 diversion, prevention, and 20 partnership. That same approach extends to how we support victims and break cycles of violence. We partner with community-based organizations like Mothers in Charge, Every Murder Is Real, Women Against Abuse through our micro grant program, launching Summer Night Lights to create vibrant evening for spaces for young people, and hiring victim advocates to support those in need. Council President, I think back to my time as captain of the 17th District when we talked about the impact of violence and trauma in our community. You've been a long champion of this work. And now we're taking to every community across our city. This is about building on the moment; staying disciplined, staying aligned, staying focused on the people we serve, and those who serve in the city every day. Philadelphia is moving in the right direction, and we invest together in people, in places and systems. We turn visions into results, and that's how we meet the needs of our communities. And that's how we remain the finest police department in the nation. I thank you for the opportunity, and I look forward to your questions.
Thank you very much. I appreciate your testimony, and as always, it's great seeing you doing the work that you are doing when it comes to keeping our city safe. And so I just want to start off by acknowledging all the hard work that you and your team have been doing and want to ask for members of City Council, could we give Philadelphia Finest a real big round of applause and support, if we can. The reason why I wanted to start off setting that tone is because we're all public servants, but the difference between our role and your role is that it's not guaranteed that any of you can come -- will come home from a tour of duty on any given day, and I take that very, very serious. And so we just want to thank you for your hard work. We commend you for the work that you are -- that you are doing. I wanted to also take a moment to specifically acknowledge the First Deputy Commissioner, John Stanford; Deputy Commissioner, Chief of Staff and Legal Affairs, Francis Healy; Michael Cram, Deputy Commissioner for Patrol Operations; Frank Vanore, Deputy Commissioner of Investigations; James J. Kelly III, Deputy Commissioner for Special Operations; Krista Dahl-Campbell, Deputy Commissioner for Organizational Services; Joel Dales, Deputy Commissioner of Professional Responsibility, who also served in the 17th Police District. Got some fans out here. Pedro Rosario, Deputy Commissioner of the Kensington Initiative; Deputy Commissioner for Community Partnerships, Myesha Massey; Mike Garvey, Executive Director of Office of Forensic Science; gentleman who hails from South Philadelphia, my district, Executive Director of Strategic Planning, which is David Zega. And I only mention these individuals because these individuals who I may interact with in some capacity, and I just want to acknowledge you, your leadership team, and all their supporting staff as well for your hard work. And listen, City Council could be rougher sometimes, the public could be rougher sometimes, but the reality is -- here's the reality: We are at a 60-year -- 60-year historical low when it comes to homicides and shootings here in the City of Philadelphia, and that has to be acknowledged. The reality is, when we talk about results, the work that you are doing is based upon the numbers, and the numbers do not lie. And so I just want to start off by asking you, Commissioner, what do you believe has been the best practices, right, and strategies implemented that you believe have gotten us to this point? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So I thank you -- first, I thank you for the acknowledgement to the team because that means a lot. I don't know how much we stand here and sit here; we do appreciate that. I think it's a combination of activity. Obviously, we can go back to COVID. During the period of COVID, where we can see what happens when schools are closed, as chief of schools said, we could see the impact it had on young people, and we could see that. And so we recognized the importance of folks being engaged with individuals in this space. I think a lot of credit goes to -- you know, I've sat and I've been very honest. I've sat through -- you know, I've been at my 40th year going, you know, into this public safety space. And I've remembered sitting by myself when crime went down, it was a whole bunch of people standing behind me. When crime went up, there was nobody standing behind me, right? And so that was this kind of thing that was going on. But when the Mayor really talked about prevention, intervention, enforcement, and for the first time in my career where we are aligned, like when I sit here to my right, this is not some performance. Like me and Adam are friends, like we respect each other. You know, his team is working with my team. All of the teams, Carlton, everybody is working, wants to see us succeed. And so I think when you get that combination of things happening, you get that surge of activity.
And so I'll start with recognizing, you hear me talk about technology. The technology -- this is the first time in my career that I am not behind. Matter of fact, some of the technology is ahead of us. It's the first time. Like we had typewriters for a long time. The young guys called them property receipt machines. They didn't know what that was, right? I mean, so the technology, I think today -- and you -- we've been around a long time -- to solve a homicide, I have to sit there and say he did it. Somebody had to see it. Well, no, not today. Today, between the cameras, the license plate readers, the phone technology, you know, all of that technology is enabling us to quickly and be able to solve. That's why you're seeing that work. Commissioner Vanore had created the shooting investigation group, treating every shooting as a homicide now. You know, last year we finished out the year 40-plus percentage. We'll be in that same space again this year. But now every time there's a shooting, the team goes out. I think that work is having impact. The work that we're doing along with our partners here, aligning our group violence and intervention, how do we link our work with the team -- with the safety team? You know, I mean, around aligning that work together, making sure that they're focused. So when we talking to Dionne, I don't need them over here. Dionne is back there somewhere. I need them here. I need them in the hot zones where they're most needed. But they have now -- you remember when we did focused deterrence, it was just us, right? I mean, these programs was a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Today, the robust services, they're able to go, and when they knock on those doors, it's absolutely incredible. I believe that's changing trajectories and changing lives, so that work absolutely is critical as being strategic, right? We know our crime strategy being very focused, the layers of focus. We have 70 percent of our crime happens in 10 of our 20 districts. And in those districts, we can look at the data and tell us exactly where that's happening. The way we're able to distill data and break down data is absolutely incredible. It goes to the team behind me. I mean, Dr. Kikuchi is leading that work, and John Grasso is leading that analytical work. We're able to today really dissect and really know where we're going. You know, the question who, what, when, and where and why is answered through data, and where we can be laser focused in really being very strategic, working with our federal partners. I met with my federal partners when I walked to the door, and I said, here's what we need to do. Here's where I need you to go. And all of them: the FBI, DEA, the Marshals, who do a phenomenal job going after our most heightened fugitives, have all aligned their work. And so when we go to Weymouth Street with the FBI and they go down and take one of their largest drug groups down there, and more to come -- I'm talking that to everybody -- more to come. It is important to that work. And then our community- based partners, I mean, the grants that are being put out, right? I mean, we have to give credit with all of that because I tell folks it's 134 square miles. Policing can't do that all by itself. So being very laser focused on who's getting those grants, what are they doing with them, are they being effective in this work. And then, at the end of the day, the people who get the most credit is the folks out here in the community.
Uh-huh. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Like I tell people, that's not a -- Ms. Johnson on the block who's been locking down the block for decades, often tell this doesn't get enough credit. But I can take you into some of my most heartened neighborhoods, and this block doesn't have anything on it. They deserve a lot of credit as well, because when they feel the surge of energy going forward -- my mother lives in the middle of North Philadelphia, and her challenges -- the challenge and care of my mother going into the bathtub because of the gunshots in the neighborhood. But today, those gunshots have gone down significantly. What does that do? It gives people to come up and peek, start to come up for air. So I think there's a lot of things happening that are driving that violence down. And our key thing is, take the brake pedal, look down, there's no brake pedal. Got to keep our foot on the gas. We got to keep pushing. Because we can -- I mean, right now we are at 31 homicides for the year. I mean -- I mean, but if I take you back to 2021, there was 171 homicides this time in 2021. Today we're at 31, right? There was -- in 2021, there was 564 shootings at this time in 2021. Today we're at 137. We're showing people that we can. Oh, you are a poor city; bull crap. Oh, we can't do that; bull crap. We're showing people that we can turn this city around, and people can believe. And the Mayor talks about hope when we came in the door, born and raised in the city, you know that, love this city, and we're showing people we can get it done.
Thank you. I think somebody was clapping for you. Go ahead. Go ahead. You can give them some love. Clap. That's what's up. I mean, we -- when things aren't going right, we give you a hard time. So when they're going good, we should give y'all your flowers. Listen, I got to do a small housekeeping item. Mr. Geer, sir, please present your testimony, then we'll open up for members to ask both of you and your team questions as a whole; is that okay?
State your name for the record and proceeds, sir.
Yes. Adam Geer, Chief Public Safety Director. Good morning, Council President. Good morning esteemed partners in City Council. Our partners, good morning. I'm going to start by thanking my leadership team. First Deputy Evangelia Manos, to my right; Marcia Dixon, my Chief Operating Officer; my Deputy of Strategy, Joshu.
And I must say he's an awesome director of strategy and legislation, by far one of the brightest in the city of Philadelphia.
Agreed. I also would like to thank my OPS family, my team, and I'm going to ask them to stand as well. If you're in the Office of Public Safety, please stand. They are the finest in the nation, comprising our Office of Public Safety. I'm so thankful for them and for all the hard work that they do. Thank you. Philadelphia has made remarkable progress on public safety over the two-plus years of the Parker Administration. To be clear, better numbers don't mean the work is done, but we have some clear signals that the work is working. I'll start by describing our progress, then attempt to explain how and why we have made it this far, and finally, share a peek into the future. It is no secret by now that Philadelphia reached a 60-low homicides in 2025, just four years after an all-time high. Likewise, unintentional fatal overdoses dropped more than 40 percent over the last two years, reaching levels not seen since the rise of fentanyl a decade ago. These declines are moving with national trends, but Philadelphia's are steeper. Just as importantly, public perception is finally shifting in the right direction. A Pew poll last year showed a 12-percentage- point decrease -- increase rather, to 56 percent in the number of Philadelphians who said they felt completely safe or pretty safe in their neighborhoods at night. Little by little, the word is getting out that something special is happening in Philadelphia. In the last month alone, OPS has hosted visits by officials from Dallas, Washington, and even Sweden. Next month, we are hosting Baltimore, Oakland, and Indianapolis. Stanford scholar, Keith Humphreys, a top Obama administration advisor on drug policy, recently published an opinion piece on his recent visit to Kensington. In it, he notes our nuanced approach to open-air drug use, comparing it favorably to Portugal's renowned model. Community Justice, one of the nation's leading advocacy organizations on gun violence, publishes an annual violence prevention index using rigorous methodology. It ranks cities on the quality and robustness of their violence prevention infrastructure. In the latest report, Philadelphia ranked number one among all of the nation's largest cities. Unsurprisingly, we're often asked how we got here. The short answer is it's a team effort. I cannot understate enough the partnership that we have with the Police Department. It has been tremendous to me and my folks and to the citizens of Philadelphia. It is a true partnership, and I'm thankful for you and your team, Commissioner Bethel; they're outstanding. It starts at the top with our mayor, though, who, when she came in the door, set the tone and set up this brilliant infrastructure, simple yet so poignant of PIE: prevention, intervention, enforcement. And since that day, that's what we've been doing, marching side by side with our community partners and the like. So public safety must be collaborative, with shared responsibility with the police partner, managing director's office, and literally anyone and everyone else who will work with us. Number three, public safety must be pursued not just for the community, but with it. We have made it our mission to deliver on that vision. We lead or co-lead dozens of collaborative initiatives with at least different government agencies. We have specialized community partnership teams for violence prevention and for Kensington. We convene advocates, community representatives, and service providers on victim services, reentry, criminal justice reform, and the like. And most importantly, we invest in community capacity. That includes more than $25 million for community grants. Community has insights and reach that government does not; we cannot do this without them. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge Council's leadership in making Philadelphia a national leader in public safety.
All of this is possible because of the genuine spirit of partnership between this mayor and this council. So what's next? In the two years since its creation, OPS has added dozens of staff and launched a dozen new major initiatives. Those initiatives include the community capacity grants program, group violence intervention focused on juveniles, incarcerated- to-community crisis intervention program. That's our CCIP for folks who are in an incarcerated state. Kensington Wellness Support Center, Neighborhood Wellness Court, Naloxone in Black, two neighborhood resource centers, Gateway to Success, the Homicide Victim Funeral Assistance Program, Public Safety Month, and more. Next week, we will launch the Philadelphia Peacekeepers Institute, which will be an institute that will bring in some of our brightest community leaders and give them the latest and greatest tools in education around community violence intervention. In the coming year, we'll move from nonstop building to refocus on refinement, integration, strategy, and sustainability. For example, we will start work on a strategic plan that will align with the Police Department's recently completed strategic plan. We will implement new data systems that work across all nine of our divisions, and we will refine and systematize our workflow with partners like the UPenn Crime and Justice Policy Lab. And that's just the beginning. We are privileged to be entrusted with this important work by Mayor Parker and by Council. Our commitment to you is that we will honor that trust fully and completely. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I just want to take a moment to acknowledge most of your team. I worked with Anthony Murphy for over years in the 5 trenches addressing the issue of 6 youth gun violence, as well as 7 Chandelle Lavelle when he first came 8 here, when we established the Office 9 of Violence Prevention, and 10 obviously Joshu Harris, who will 11 always forever be a part of Team 12 Johnson, your Deputy for Strategy 13 and Legislation, as well as Assata 14 Thomas, who is Executive Director of 15 Reentry Services. 16 We have an event that's 17 coming up where we've been going all 18 throughout the Second Councilmanic 19 District helping people get their 20 records expunged, as well as pardons, as well as a part of that process, and her First Deputy, Patty Jones Thompson. And then also Adara Combs, the Office of Victim Advocate, the office that we created under leadership of Joshu Harris to make sure that we had someone fighting for victims here in the city of Philadelphia, particularly around gun violence, because at that time, on the state level, they were only focusing on the issue of domestic violence. And so, through our special committee on gun violence, there was an advocacy around making sure that we're advocating and fighting for the victims of gun violence, as well as -- I guess I won't call her Assistant Heather, but your whole team, Adara, for just being on the front line and making sure that we are addressing victims of gun violence. Which leads me into my next question, and I'm going to open it up to my team. Twofold: One, Commissioner, when you were here doing our domestic violence investigatory hearing around domestic violence, you talked about launching a weekly domestic violence case review with the Office of the District Attorney and the Office of the Victim Advocate. So could you give us a status update of this initiative? How many times have you all met, how many cases have been reviewed, and overall, the synergy between those three departments when it comes to addressing domestic violence here in the city of Philadelphia? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So I appreciate that question. And first, I'll begin -- I want to carry all forward, and I know your team and OPS has done a great job, but acknowledge the team under Ayanna Greene, as you are in the -- as you know, because of the issues we have between our homicide and families when we had someone killed in the community. We now have victim advocates, as you know, in the Philadelphia Police Department; that is going extremely well under Executive Director Ayanna Greene. We meet with every family that has lost a life in the city of Philadelphia. They meet with those families, they create a bridge, they work, and collaborate with OPS and other community-based organizations. They do -- after every shooting, that anyone gets shot, the team follows up with them. After every fatality from a crash investigation incident where someone gets killed in a vehicle, they meet with those families, and now shortly we'll be moving to support those in the special victims; those from stranger rapes will be provided support there as well. And so, there's a great synergy and collaboration across that. So part of the work that you indicated, Commissioner Vanore, Commissioner Healy met with the DA's office, Women Against Abuse, the CARES Unit, community partnerships to create a collaboration moving forward. I don't have the specific how often -- I can -- but they meet biweekly to review intimate partner violence cases focused on the coordination, accountability, and prevention. I just want to give you the magnitude. When we look at the number of domestic-related incidents, there's over 18,000 domestic-related instances a year in the city of Philadelphia, and that's been an upward trend that we have seen. 75 percent of those are females, and so part of our work now is really being very deliberate.
I don't know if Frank has -- the Commissioner Vanore has the exact number of times we're meeting, but it is going extremely well. If -- I don't know if Frank, you wanted to add something to that?
Yeah. Frank, we would ask you to add something to that. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: He said they're meeting every week, that he's not biweekly -- every week? Every week they're meeting.
Every week. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, every week, which is a -- is a great place to be. But one of the things we're also doing under Executive Director Ayanna Greene, we recognize that we have to do more. So in the domestic space, we're centralizing that now. So we went through a process very shortly, but we're bringing in police officers as victim advocates into a centralized space where we're laser focused on domestics, you know, robberies, those types of offenses, making sure that we have synergy and be able to effectively address those issues. I think I've shared with you, we were able to get a grant from Para Grant. It's a grant that will -- one of the things we learned from Kada Scott in our conversation as -- her tragic loss -- was the linking of information. So we do have a model; we expect that to have in place verified by midyear, so we'll bring everything together into one space. They're actually going to create a dashboard for us around the domestic abuse. So if Kevin is committing domestic situations anywhere in the city, we'll be able to bring that information at the click of a button; the investigator will know what is in front of him or her. What is that person?
Quick question. Is this dashboard you're referring to, based upon -- you testified that you will be partnering with Women's Law Project and Women Against Abuse to implement a standardized tool to assess domestic violence and imminent dangers. Is that the same tool? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No. 17 So that's a -- that's a system. That's a software that I'm talking about. What I talked about to you, though, it's a lethality tool. It's a danger assessment for law enforcement. One of the things we recognized -- we have a form that was two pages long, but what it was not -- originally, it was born out of a collaboration with the University of Penn to be able to go through a process to determine if that victim is at risk. One of the things that Director Ayanna was able to determine and look across is a lethality tool that's being used by law enforcement, which we can use. An officer asked 11 questions. It has been -- you know, it has been going through the vetting process and evidence-based product, where the officer is going to ask 11 questions and will give them some indication that that person may be at a heightened risk, and that -- and so we think that's a great model for us. Once that lethality tool is determined, then we'll be able to share that information, both with the -- our response as from the victim advocacy space, but also working with the District Attorney's office and others. And part of the work that Frank is doing to be able to elevate -- how do you take something -- we have to find something that elevates us out of the 18,000.
What's the timeframe? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Oh, so we're moving very quickly. On my desk, I have the approval, the funding. I'm be able to identify some funding to bring in the group. We have training to do, but I anticipate, Ayanna, by -- I think she's here. She's not? Ayanna, what date do we have due?
Late July. Okay. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: That we'll have that in place.
Awesome. Tell me about partnering with Women's Law Project and Women Against Abuse to implement a standardized tool to assess domestic violence in imminent danger. That's something totally separate? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, that's all the same thing.
All the same? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We all worked together. She brought in all those groups. It was important that we had those who are in that space help inform our process. So that's been all part of us getting together, President Johnson, to talk through: is this the best product? Is this the right tool for us to use? And being very understanding that we may have to change, if not, but we believe this is far more effective than what we have been doing. We have to be better in this space.
Two short other questions and I'll turn over to my members. As we prepare for -- well, we are in 2026. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
As we prepare for all the great events that are taking place here in the city of Philadelphia, and The New York Times just said, Philadelphia is the number one destination to come to celebrate 2026, to visit our city. But we are also at war globally, right? Just give me an idea of the protocol and what we are doing just to make sure the strategies, which you can express in a public safety, and what you can express in a public setting as it relates to us just being safe during this particular time. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir. So before I returned to the Police Department in 2024, the team had already started -- embarked on understanding that this was going to be one of the most significant years in our history. And so by the time I arrived, the team had been working with that process, developed a safety model, not just us, working with Dom in the Office of Emergency Management, working with special events. So this has become obviously a model that's more than just us. We are -- it's a state, local, and federal process to be able to create the safe perimeter and the process that we do. It is going to tax us from a staffing perspective, something that we've never dealt with before, but we will be bringing in additional assets to support us. The state police will be supporting us in this space. Many of our federal colleagues will be supporting us as we go about this work. The -- yes, sir.
Does this impact overtime for you -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
-- and your team? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So -- yeah. So we were able to get a grant from a USA grant. We were granted $30 million total, not all to us, to Police Department, to be able to bring those additional assets in. So there's a little over $3 million to provide support to the State Police to enhance our work. There's money going to SEPTA to enhance our work. There's funds for us, specifically for the FIFA events, and then for the Fan Fest events that are going to be in Lemon Hill. And so we were able to apply and receive that funding, and finally it was approved most recently. That money also -- we were also granted, and I know there may be some conversations around drones. We were able to be granted $7 million funds for drone mitigation. And now folks say, well, what is that? Prior to that, the only person who could deal with taking a drone out of the air was the federal government. They recognize, because of the heightened alert for the FIFA events, that the FIFA cities will be granted the opportunity to have the drone mitigation process. Because of your investment two years ago, we were very prepared. We have 13 pilots. Jessie Darnell. Is Darnell in here today? He leads our drone project, and he does a phenomenal job.
Got a white shirt on, too. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: You like the white shirt on?
Yeah, I like the white shirt. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, someday he will have four stars or three stars or two stars --
Sure. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- because he's doing phenomenal work in that space. He's been leading because of the foundation built. He went down to Huntsville to be trained on their drone mitigation. Right now, he's the only one in the city of Philadelphia who can bring a drone down, absent the federal counterparts. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it's not you shooting it down. There is equipment that will either force the drone back to its location where it came from, the individual who launched it, forcing it down where we may make it go down. There's other options, which I can't talk about here, but when you hear about the importance of that, if anyone is following the war, drones are becoming a very -- today, someone could load up a drone, whether it be chemical agent or some other type of agent, and fly that into anything. And so it was important because of FIFA to have those tools available to us to be able to do that properly. So, again, I'll keep emphasizing the things that you established here when -- over two years ago, to invest in that, the funding we got from the foundation helped us in that early entry into getting the FAA clearance, prepared us fully to be able to do both the technology that we need to be able to protect the event, but the staffing, you know -- you know, Chief Presby Oka and Chief Singleton had been leading that work, and Commissioner Stanford as well -- and those three, as well as the team, to really prepare us, which is going to be an awesome time. We'll tell people they're going to come and enjoy themselves.
Enjoy ourselves. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: You hear me? And we're going to work hard to make sure it's a safe time.
Okay. Thank you. And I just wanted to put that out there for the record, because I know, because we live in the birthplace of America, right? And we have so many iconic institutions and landmarks, right? And you have folks saying, you know, we want to target certain areas throughout the United States. And I think about our city because we have most of the symbolic institutions that represent our country as a whole. And with so many people all around the world gathering in our city to enjoy themselves and to have a good time at that, we are just being proactive on the front end as opposed to reactive. And so -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. One of the things I would do just -- but part of our process too is taking care of our home base. You know, July 4th weekend is one of our most challenging, one of my most violent period, unfortunately, historically. And so part of our work too is making sure that we have enough staff to take care of home, because after July 4th, folks are going home, right? And so we're very conscious too of making sure that, you know, Commissioner Cram, who runs patrol, and the team and others, will be working to make sure that we cover all of it. And so I know, as your listeners say, yes, we're going to be focused a lot of attention, but we're also going to continue to make sure we take care of our home base, our districts, our communities, because they also face some challenges in that time period, and that has been a historical issue for us.
Thank you. And one question for Director of Public Safety, Mr. Adam Geer. And, Mr. Adam Geer, just so you know, we take pride in your position because it started here in City Council under the leadership of Council President Darrell Clarke, and co-signed by Councilmember Curtis Jones, Chair of Public Safety, and myself being Chair of the Special Committee on Gun Violence. So you make us proud in terms of the work that you are doing, as well as contributing to the 60-year historical low. I just want to know, how do you come up with the assessments and the metrics to show that the money that we are investing and the Boots on the Ground Organization, something that's near and dear to me, is paying off, right? And I just want you to state it for the record, because you know, oftentimes folks will say, why are they giving money to this group and to that group, but we know that there's an impact based upon us investing in the front end as opposed to back end. So give us an idea what your metrics look like and how you come up with the assessments? And then the last part is, tell us also how you're helping the organizations build their back office, right? How they go about doing their paperwork, the proper accounting, just to make sure, because oftentimes, traditionally, it's been that the people who have the best intentions and who are actually doing the work need the technical support to make sure that they're pretty much operating a business as a nonprofit. That the paperwork is tight, I's are crossed -- I mean, T's are crossed, I's are dotted. But at the end of the day, they have the heart and passion to be on the front line helping our community.
Council President, thank you so much for the question and for your support, frankly, and Council's support of our $25 million investment in these community organizations. It is tremendous, it is unprecedented, and it is making a difference. To answer your question, one of the first things --
And I want to say one part, because the public may not quite understand this. There was a time in the city of Philadelphia, particularly in City Council, we would never give any money to Boots on the Ground Organization. The focus was on mass incarceration. And then when we began giving funding, it was like the max was like maybe 10,000. And we continued to advocate, and as a result of that advocacy, now a group can apply for a million plus, and that's unheard of. But if we could do support for big-time developers that come to City Council, surely, we could support the big -- the organizations called Boots on the Ground, doing the work day in and day out to save our community. So I just wanted to put that out there for the record, because people, they try to rewrite history and kind of forget, right, Jamie, in terms of how this process started, because we weren't always here; it was just more focused on the stats, Commissioner, was, how many people you locked up this week, right? That's been the norm, right? And at the end of the day, it'll be a revolving door, because the former commissioner, Sylvester Johnson, said we'll never arrest our way out of this situation. And Commissioner, I also thank you for bringing Dave Zega on to add that community component, right, to make sure the community is a part of your overall strategy to address public safety as a whole. So, Mr. Geer?
Yes, sir. Thank you, Council President. To answer your question, one of the first things I did when I came into this office, which I believe is the right -- it is the right model to have an Office of Public Safety in a city that pulls together its prevention, intervention divisions, and makes them work together and breaks down silos and strategies and implements together. That is the -- that is the right model, and is a world -- first-class model. We brought in a Deputy for Data Management and Performance. We did a national search. Rafael Serrano, we stole him from Seattle's City Attorney's Office.
You can't you say stole in this body. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Conversion program is --
And so he relocated back to Philadelphia and is spearheading our data management. And what that means is, for example, for the first time, pulling together those nine divisions' data into a centralized system that speaks the same language, essentially. It's called Azure. So before, our Division of Reentry might be collecting data on individuals and folks, calling a contact one thing, and then there might be another division, a Division of Safe Neighborhoods, calling it something else. We're making that data unified so that we can track people, understand where people have been, whether they've had contacts with any of our divisions or departments, so that we can -- we can learn from that. That is -- that is the first time that it is happening within the Office of Public Safety. We feel we're going to learn a tremendous amount from that, especially with the assistance of the Police Department and having access to their data -- again, tremendous partners. We will know a lot more about the folks who are at highest risk, and then going out and being able to give them the services they need. That's one thing. The other thing is that we do in our grants program, and I liken it to this, because I believe the work is saving lives. It is difficult. As the commissioner likes to say, most of the crime for youth in terms of shooting or being shot happens about two and a half, three miles from the school, about two and a half to three hours after school, something like that, about 70-something percent. Commissioner will correct me if I'm wrong. If one of our grants programs is operating a program, a safe space where kids are coming in, and it is in the area where we need that grant program to be operating in one of our top 10 districts, within two to three miles from the school, two to three hours after school, then we know we're giving those children safe harbor. We know that they're inside. And by the way, at the same time, they're getting access to cognitive behavioral therapy, whether they know it or not, peer mentorship, positive role models in their life. That's a difficult data point, in terms of saving those lives, to get to, frankly. However, that's the work that Rafael and his team are engaged with. They're just up and running. We're making that investment in our data so that we can move forward with clear eyes and go to where we actually need to go. That is data driven. So we're doing that work. Second part of your question is the supports for our grants team. And it -- to be clear, our grants program is not about just giving money to organizations that deserve it and then set it and forget it and hope for the best. We have an amazing grants team, headed by Marcia Dixon and Kenneth Johnson, and our absolutely dedicated, passionate grants team, as you know, Council President, who don't stop with the money out the door. We have technical assistants for every cohort that is mandatory technical assistants. We have optional office hours, then, where I walk by their office and they're -- the grantees are up on the screen and they're assisting them on their day-to-day, whether that's bookkeeping or any other issues they might have. During those TA hours, there's budgeting and financial management training, fundraising strategies, building partnerships, developing data systems, volunteer engagement, strategic planning, communication strategies are so critical, and, of course, leaning into trauma-informed practices and self-care. We have a gala that we've now two years in a row run, where we're bringing together all our grantees into the same room. Council President, I know you were there supporting us. And it's just an opportunity for them, again, to get training there. There's a conference, and they're getting training there during the day, but then they network and connect at night so that they know who they are. They can form these partnerships and become lasting institutions in our community.
Well, thank you very much. Great call on the members. I want to give a shout out to Heather Harris again, Heather over there where she works with Derrick Holmes. I kind of brushed over, but I know she has our back when it comes to all things victim advocacy. So thank you, Heather. I appreciate it. We want to give you your proper due. I'm going to start off with the Chair of Public Safety. He's first in the queue, Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr, then you have Councilmember Jeffrey J. Young, then Councilman Dr. Anthony Phillips, then Council Majority Leader Captain Gilmore-Richardson.
Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Commissioner, for assembling this competent team. I remember some of the initiatives, drones flying around in this chamber when you introduced the concept to the city of Philadelphia as a law enforcement tool --
You actually advocated for that concept to come --
Yeah. We -- and then we -- more importantly, you then moved it into practicality. It's gone from then to now. And we are on the cutting edge, and I'm so happy about that. I remember a time when -- the President will tell you that the District Attorney, the Police Commissioner, the Defender Association, the mayor couldn't sit in the same room, breathing the same air, and we would sit around, and Jamie Gauthier was a part of that. We would sit around, looking at them, and wonder, like, how -- what chance do we have as a city if the leadership does not get along enough to collaborate on criminal justice? I'm happy today that is not the case. You don't got to like each other, you don't have to go out for lunch all the time, but you have put in the work, and it's -- as the president said, it's in the numbers, it's undeniable. So my questions are as follows: What do we do with all of those groundbreaking things, the cameras, the body-worn cameras, the municipal cameras, the license plate. We -- that has probably paid a part. What do we do next to create that next level? And I'm -- I have some suggestions. One is the crime lab, that I remember us taking tours down there and watching. I've never seen that many guns other than in a gun show, sitting on the shelves, waiting some of them to be processed. Bullets, ballistics, rape kits, all of that, which I have to think impacts your closure rate ultimately and conviction rates for people that are apprehended. So my first question is, when can we see shovels in the ground for that? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So I know Mike Garvey is here. And I believe that we'll be working through next year -- this year, to work through the implementation process into 2027. And then we will have to do that transition, right? The lab will be open, as both labs will be open as they transition. That'll be about a six-to-seven- month operation, with us being fully operational, I believe by the end of 2027. 2027, we will be ready to go. But I also will acknowledge, you know, Mike Garvey, who leads our forensics, who's nationally recognized. He's done a phenomenal job in getting us to this place where we're about to launch on. But even prior to that, I missed -- when I talked about technology, I failed to recognize just the technology that Mike and his team had brought to it: Touch DNA, Rapid DNA. I mean, if you saw the work that his team did after the unfortunate aircraft, the fatalities we had up in the Northeast, his men and women worked and were able to identify all of those individuals and -- who were unfortunately killed and disqualify anyone else in a very short period of time, something that is just incredible. And so as we move into the new forensic center, it's not like, you know, Mike and his team have waited for us to get to the new facility and then launch into the new work. One thing Mike and his team have done, despite the conditions that they've been working under, is that they've stayed at the cutting edge of the technology. Now, they're going to a new space, and then would really be able to branch out and really bring in a lot, move up the time period, move up the lab, hiring more additional people to accelerate the DNA process, accelerate that type of work. But really, really proud of the work that him and his team have done. And this body who's invested in the forensics recognizing that the forensics is the key to what's moving forward. The crime lab -- I'll stop there because I know you have time.
Yeah, I got time constraints. So my second question that I want to get on the record is that I believe that significantly this year in particular, that the collaboration between SEPTA Police, Philadelphia Police, University Police, has to be tighter than it's ever been; working with cameras and other two -- I'll never forget the Wanamaker's incident, where you were able to follow people on the subway that got out, and you knew where they -- what station they got out, and we apprehended people because of that kind of collaboration. I think that that should be the norm and not the exception. And how can we hone in on that to take advantage of boots on the ground technology integrated so that we can better keep the public safe? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So we're really proud to share with -- I mean, the Genetec system that we have to be able to capture the cameras. We have over 3,000 city crime cameras, but there's over 9,000 additional cameras that we have access to in that process. Even the School District, as they move, they're bringing on their system, putting new cameras in their system. They will be able to incorporate their cameras, not inside. We won't be able to be looking inside the schools, but the Genetec system, and be able to bring their cameras to bear. So we already collaborate with SEPTA. We -- you know, Commissioner Vanore and the team work with them on a regular basis because of just their camera system. To your point, you know, when we think back to the job which you're describing in Macy's, the guy, the cameras catching him going down into the subway, coming out of the subway, that kind of --
Coming across the campus. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. But you're also seeing our strategic plan. But one of the things we recognize in Dave Zega when we're creating a strategic plan, recognize that as well. Is one thing to say we work together, but it's another thing to really codify. We have MOUs with all of our departments. Commissioner Healy will do that with Temple and Penn, et cetera, laying out these certain specific things, if what we will do and the things that they won't do. But what we recognize now, to your point, is how can we even better make sure that we're working collaborative? We do a lot of work with Temple because of the -- you know, the CB Moore, and our kids like to meet up on there. Most recent, we deployed five officers and a supervisor down there to help them to integrate into that space so we can be better at that. But we're working through that process. I can tell you right now, we have phenomenal relationships with our law enforcement, university partners, University of Penn, I mean, incredible. We're working now with a project with Jefferson Police Department as we're going to be down on the station in Market East. They're creating a subset station that we will be a part of. Again, we're working with our Temple colleagues, and so -- and Drexel, I mean, one of our -- one of our big dogs, you know, is there in the Drexel. And so we work very effectively with them. So -- but we did see that is even to do that even greater, that we put that in a strategic plan to make sure that we really, really are working collectively together.
Thank you very much. Councilmember Jeffrey J. Young, then Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips.
Thank you, Mr. President. And I want to first say thank you to the hardworking men and women, the Philadelphia Police Force, specifically in the 5th Council District and the 22nd, the 25th, 26th, and the 9th Districts. I just have a couple questions about -- well, first question is about police issue firearms, right? So a report by CeaseFire found that over 17,000 guns recovered from crimes by PA law enforcement in about 2023. Three fourths of those came from Pennsylvania gun dealers. And only about two percent of those guns came from essentially like high crime gun dealers, right? And so -- and I do know the Philadelphia police are allowed to purchase their off-duty fire weapons from wherever they want. But I do think that we have a duty or an obligation to kind of curtail some of this gun violence where we know that only a small number of dealers are actually supplying the illegal guns here in our city. And I think we have to have more of a supply side approach when it comes to this. And so, my ask is like, why are we allowing off-duty officers to purchase firearms from these high-risk dealers? And at the same time, the city of Philadelphia is suing Glock, and Glock is who we purchase our firearms from. So why are we purchasing firearms from a manufacturer who we're -- who we are suing for causing havoc on our streets? And why are we allowing our off-duty officers to also purchase their private weapons from these high -- these high crime dealers? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I don't know if I'll answer it properly, but Councilmember, I mean, you know, the officers -- when my officers purchase guns, they go in legally. They go in with ID, they go in with purpose. They document that purpose. They have to register if they're going to carry that weapon with us. And so there is a process to control that. I don't have a liberty to tell an officer where he or she cannot go to purchase a gun, but what I can know is that when my officers are purchasing a weapon, they're doing it in a legal manner. Many of the guns that you see on the street today are, you know, either straw purchasing or coming up the south -- from down the south where they're coming into the city. So I don't make a correlation as to where would they go. They are permitted just like any other individual to have a weapon. Where would they go? I would expect that they would go to the very few licensed establishments that are still here in the city, to purchase their weapon, as anyone else who has that authority to do. As it relates to the Glock, I mean, there's two separate things. I won't talk about the legislation, that's in the city solicitors, but right now we have over 5,000 guns or Glock weapons in our system. We've had those since I was part of the testing group in 1988 when we were introduced to Glock. The Glock is one of the most formidable weapons to be able to use by law enforcement for a myriad of reasons, because of its safety, how it operates, one; two, because of its safety that it has on it. And its finger trigger and pull, it makes it a much more weapon for us. If we were even to think about trading out of those weapons, it would cost us millions and millions of dollars to do that. I think upwards of $5 million, and would take a substantial amount of time. There are a number of -- as you know, of lawsuits all over the place from everything that you can imagine. We didn't correlate those two together to say if that -- I mean, Glock had a weapon that was easily used to be able to turn into, I forget the term, a switch -- a switch. I believe my understanding from the team, that has been rectified. I know the lawsuit is still in place, but they've done some things to address that, to stop the switch moving forward. So they have adapted their model as the lawsuit continues. So they have been -- as a result of that, made some adjustments to their weapon. So I don't know if I answered both of your questions, but that's where we are now.
Thank you. I have one more question, Mr. President. So overtime --
Thank you. So overtime remains enormous, I think, in our budget. So how much of that overtime is being used to prop up basic patrol, special events, and reactive deployment rather than proactive neighborhood policing? And what does that mean for sustainable services in North Philadelphia in the 22nd, the 25th, 26th? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I'm sorry, say it again. I missed the counts.
Like, what does that -- so the overtime cost is about $132 million -- over $132 million. So how much of that is being used to prop up the basic patrols, right, special events and reactive deployments rather than proactive neighborhood policing. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So that -- I mean -- and so I appreciate the question, and I do want to follow-up. I did get a note that I believe what's -- 80 percent of the crimes originally, guns are purchased in Pennsylvania, other parts of Pennsylvania as well. But the key into your question -- I mean, part of what you know, I mean, we are down from our staffing positions quite substantially. You know, we're down over 1,294 officers in our deficit as it relates to our staffing levels. As a result, we're fortunate that the Class 100 money has shifted into -- for overtime, to be able to, one, establish a baseline of men and women to be able to respond to 911. We will get almost 2.4 million calls of service a year, almost 200 -- we're talking about 200-something thousand -- 250,000 every month. And so to meet that challenge, we use that money to lay, you know, officers into those districts that are short in staffing as we continue to build up our staffing through our recruitment process. We then will move into that funds to be able to pay for events. Oftentimes, even in the City Council, there's events that are happening. You may not ask it, but we're covering to make sure that there's some safety and security around that. Protests, there's a plethora of protests that we cannot account for. No Kings -- No Kings Day, I mean, you know, we -- because of the issues around safety, that cost us a substantial amount of money because we have to deploy a large percent of the people. And in that case, last year was relegated to just on the Parkway. Then we have multiple places. So we're constantly dealing with protests, constantly dealing. Then we move into the quality-of- life issues, complaints from your constituencies around ATVs, car meet-ups, motorcycles, that money has been able to use for us to, you know, deploy multiple times across the city to address the ATV meet-ups and the like. And then in our community partnership work, you know, having our men and women going out into the field to support that work, our Juvenile Assessment Center. So we use all of those funds to the -- as effective as we can to address a myriad of issues, both crime issues, prevention issues, enforcement issues, to make sure -- and I think that has halt -- we're fortunate and we appreciate the funds because it gives us ability to be able to deal with those things we can see, but more importantly, incidents that pop up that we can't see.
Thank you, Mr. President. I look forward to supporting the Summer Nightlife Series again in the 22nd Police District. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I appreciate you. I appreciate. We -- and I appreciate your support.
Summer Nightlight Series. There's events that are happening at two rec centers in the 22nd Police District.
For about five-or six-week period, every day of the week.
There's activity going on at the Rec Center with the police and other community partners.
Like what -- like 6:00 to 11:00? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We do it up to 8:00 to 9:00 o'clock.
Midnight basketball? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We -- it goes about 6:00 to 9:00. David Irizarry, who's a stony fellow who came to the department to help run that program and my juvenile work.
And you're in the -- it's in the 22nd District? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I mean, we started -- there you go.
North Philly? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: There you go. There you go. There you go.
I mean, we got a new rec center in the -COMMISSIONER BETHEL: But one of the things we -- but I will share, when we look at data, the 19121 zip code is one of our most challenging zip codes for our young people. It is the highest number of kids getting arrested.
North Philadelphia. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, North Philadelphia. It is -- it is where we have a large number of juveniles, where we have a large number of kids who are getting arrested, even if they're getting arrested at other parts of the city, the diversion is that they're coming out of North Philadelphia. And so I think the strategy, we went into the zip code, and as a pilot, we hope to plan to go. Susan Slawson, the commissioner -
Sure. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- Recs had been really supportive. But we were feeding -- I mean, the part of it was feeding young people at night, 7,000 plus kids getting fed. And it's a great program. We appreciate your support, Council.
Thank you. Whatever we can do to be supportive of you. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
It's all about the young people, President. It's all about our young people.
Okay. I like that. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And we were able to get a grant to support -- we were able to get a grant from -- a PCCD grant to support us. Neubauer Foundation helped us last year, and is helping us again this year. It's been a -- it's been a great process, and we do look to expand it, but we were trying to get it -- get it set first.
Well, good job. I'm glad you said it was data driven. I like how you talked about the data, making sure we're targeting. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips, then Councilmember Majority Katherine Gilmore- Richardson. And if you can hear me, Councilmember Jim Harrity.
Thank you, Council President. I want to continue my questions in the core principle that I've been addressing in this budget season. And that is responsive government. A strong example of responsive government in action is Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, who has embraced a community-based approach to policing. We have seen that with Captain McCollum's response to flash mobs in Finley, where we've improved and strengthened that area. We've even seen it all the way to North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, even with Cecil B. Moore. We now have a proactive strategy when it comes to those situations. So we're seeing results across the city. Crime is trending downward, and that progress reflects your leadership. Today that commitment is visible in the bike patrols, the foot patrols and stronger connection between officers. And when I first started, we had leadership in the 35th District, now led by Deputy Commissioner Massey, who ensured that neighbors had direct lines of communication. And she continues to do that today. So I want to applaud the Police Department on their continued responsive government. Now, I want to speak on the work of the Office of Public Safety. And I remember being introduced to this initiative by someone I admire, Council President Clarke. And now nearly three years into the operation, we still do not have strong responsive government when it comes to the Office of Public Safety in terms of what its mission is supposed to be. The office distributes millions of dollars annually for violence prevention, community intervention, and direct services. Yet we do not have consistent communication on the outcome's effectiveness or equity and distribution. That is not responsive -- that's not what responsive government looks like. Director Geer, I have said this before, and will say it again, and I want to be a partner, but partnership requires transparency. We need to understand what is working, who is being funded, and what measurable impact is being achieved in our communities. Too often we see public recognition of certain organizations that are receiving violence prevention grants, while other community groups report being denied or underfunded. And these organizations are not -- there's no 20 public outcomes posted on websites or a booklet that shows their measurable impact in communities. So that raises real concerns for me. We're also with the Office of Public Safety. I also want to highlight that I had a Town Watch in the Melrose Park section -- I had a Town Watch launch that I wanted to do in the Melrose Park Garden section of our district, alongside State Representative Anthony Bellmon. Neighbors showed up, they were ready; but without consistent follow through, that momentum stalled. That cannot happen. So what -- I have just three quick questions and I hope that I can stay on really quickly and get a good response from you. Can I get a commitment on the following? We had a 13-year-old, unfortunately that passed away last week in West Oak Lane. You do a great job communicating and working with the Mayor, which is excellent. However, Council communication is off. I heard PAAN showed up. I heard there was conversations with victims' advocates, but we didn't even get a call from our office saying, Hey, here are the resources that are happening in the district. Every time something happens with the District Attorney's office, I get a call from G. Lamar Stewart, but I do not get a public facing call from our Office of Public Safety. Nor are you asking or demanding of your leadership team, Shondell, Adara, to call us to let us know what you're doing in our district. That's No. 1. Can I get a commitment that communication is going to be proactive? I shouldn't have to call you. You should be able to tell me, here's what we're doing. Here's how we're working.
Number two, I get calls all the time about neighbors who are disappointed in the fact that we have all this money going out to these violence prevention organizations. We see that crime is going down, but to them, they're like, why are we giving money out to these organizations when they don't know who they are, right? Number two, they don't see the impact and they just feel like it's frivolous money being spent sometimes. It's not that it's not saying it's a bad thing, but they don't know what it's going to. I could have called these violence prevention organizations that you say are funded in our district, and I could have had them work with me when I went out there to that family and say, Hey, let's work on this situation in our neighborhood to bring crime down around what happened when it came to this 13-year-old who passed away last week. We're not getting that interaction. Can I get a commitment from you that we're going to get more of a measurable impact that's going to be published online, showing the impact of all of these organizations, one by one by one detailed, because otherwise it could be looked at as frivolous spending. And the last question is, can we also get a commitment to a proactive town hall? You are raising -- a Town Watch. You are raising Town Watch funding by $55,000. I have yet to see this Town Watch organization come into our district and say, Here are the entities and neighborhoods that are going to be working with the former Town Watch. Why should I have to do the job of the Town Watch by saying, I need you to go in this area, that area there. Be proactive. I shouldn't have to do your job. There's a lack of proactivity from this department. But when the Mayor calls, I respect it, you respond to her. But you're also supposed to work with Council. Your main mission was supposed to bring agencies together; Council, Mayor, and all the agencies. You just do not just work with Council -- the Mayor. You have to work directly, proactively with us. Being reactive is me calling and saying, I need you to do this, then you do it. No, I need you to do it without me calling you. And that's what I'm saying. Those are the three questions. Can I get a commitment to you today? Because I'm tired of saying that. I said it last year, I said the year before, but I've had it up to now. It has to happen. It's disrespectful to our neighborhoods, and we have to make sure that this happens going forward.
I just want to add one part, Dr. Phillips, before you respond. Anthony Murphy, he do reach out to me when there's a shooting in my district, in South Philadelphia. So -- but Mr. Geer, you can respond, sir. But I had to cover my guy Anthony Murphy because when it happens -- same way you-all cover the Northwest folks when they come up here. So I got to cover Anthony. But in all seriousness, Mr. Adam, would you like to respond to Dr. Anthony Phillips, please?
Absolutely. And thank you for your questions here, Councilmember. You know, my team, they have, as you know, an incredibly hard job. And I think that they're doing outstanding work in our community. A lot of it is by design. And I'll walk you through some of that and how it might appear that there's not responsiveness. But I do respectfully want to disagree about the responsiveness from my Office of Public Safety. I actually think that they are one of the most responsive agencies in --
They are responding. No, I'm not saying -- they are responding, but your job is to coordinate with us. You are not asking them to contact council members to work with them in the work that they're doing that's incredible. That's what I'm saying. I -- you keep telling me this over and over again, that you're going to call me, you're going to call me. I should have got a call about all of the work that you were doing last week with the 13-year-old who unfortunately passed away in our district. Did I get a call from any of your departments? No. GVI is doing great work, Shondell's doing great work, Office of victim advocate. Do I get a call from you all about that? No, I don't. Why do I have to call you to do that, Adam?
Councilmember, the -- and I appreciate you acknowledging the hard work of my team. The reality of it is, well, we had extended an opportunity to sit down and meet, I know, before these Council hearings. In the spirit of continuing to engage and communicate, I don't believe that we were able to meet with you, schedules might have -- might not have aligned, in which case I would have -- I would have gladly gone through some of our efforts or addressed some of these concerns. And I'm hearing what you're saying, so I first want to acknowledge what you're saying. With respect to the contact with this individual, with the -- with the 13-year-old family, it is absolutely tragic. A lot of times by design, and folks -- we on the victim services side don't -- never want to bombard a location, a family, a situation. We don't want to overwhelm them with resources because we hear this all the time, that they don't know who to go to. Who's this? They're just overwhelmed. They've lost a loved one. We had our Rapid Response Unit, which is a protocol that we have within the Office of Public Safety. We work with our community partners and with our agencies. That was activated for that particular case. And I don't want to get too much into the case because it is sad. They are still grieving. I spoke to the family yesterday. It is still very much a very difficult situation in terms of where we're at timing wise. However, our Rapid Response Unit engaged, bringing in our community partners, bringing in our teams, crime scene -- everything was activated. And then we reached out to see whether there should be appropriate further contact. We made the determination, no. At this point, there was one of our external partners, Northwestern Victim Services, who was in the lead for this particular case. So we backed off to not -- as to not overwhelm. You know, I -- for what it's worth, Councilmember, and I know that we've texted about specific instances, I know for a fact that I've called you about prior instances. My sincere apologies if you feel slighted or in this particular case, if I didn't reach out and you felt a certain way about that, my sincere apologies. You do have my cell phone number.
No. That is the point. That's the -- this is the point I've made to -- Council President, I got to say this.
I got to say this. Because this is the point that I'm making to every resident in the city of Philadelphia. I spend -- I feel like oftentimes I have to spend most of my time as a Councilmember helping other people do their job. I am not -- just because I didn't call you, right? That's not my job to call you and ask for you to do your job. You were charged to coordinate Council, Mayor, all of the agencies. So when something happens -- you've only called me one time about a major incident in our district, one time. And so I have not heard from anyone else. If you're coordinating everyone, right, I shouldn't have to say, Adam, hey, are you organizing in the area? Can you do so? I -- you should proactively call me and say, I'm going to have Shondell call you. I'm going to have Anthony Murphy. I'm going to have Adara call. Your team should be freely letting us know whenever they're doing stuff in our area. So -- because I was out there in the neighborhood talking, and I'm looking up, I see PAAN out there. I didn't even know PAAN was even coming today, right? I could have actively told our neighbors that PAAN is there, Adara is there. I can't even communicate well to our neighbors because I don't know what the city of Philadelphia is doing. And we put you in charge to coordinate your team, and you're not -- you're not proactively calling.
Councilmember, I understand. I -- suffice to say this, and I hear the point that you're making. Our teams were on the ground. What I want the citizens of Philadelphia to know is that our teams were on the ground. PAAN, when you hear PAAN, those are our teams. That's a part of the Rapid Response Unit. They were on the ground. We had made the determination through our other government partners, which we were all coordinating through the Office of Public Safety. The Mayor's community engagement team spoke to the principal. We assessed the situation for further outreach.
No 7 one's saying that you're not doing the work, you're not working with us. With me particular. I don't know if you're working with other members. I would go to say that you -- I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm not sure if you're across the board every time there's an incident in the city, if you're reaching out to us on your own. I'm asking, can I get that commitment from you now?
No. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying the short answer is that yes, I feel like I communicate with Council on a very regular basis. And again, my apologies if -- obviously, this particular case, I did not call you after this particular case.
No, it's this case and other cases. You have -- you're funding organizations in our district, and I don't even know -- I don't even know I have a relationship with the organizations that you're funding.
I would like to do this, right? Because you-all would go back and forth --
But he does this all the time, Council President.
One second, sir. He's very, very passionate about his issue. Are you going to respond in regards to -- he's saying you and your team should be reaching out to him regarding communicating with him and members of Council regarding anything that's happening in our districts. He's also saying he shouldn't have to reach out.
You guys should be reaching out back to him regarding everything that's taking place in his district as well as other members of Council. Is that clarity, sir?
One last thing. The commitment to being transparent about the dollars that are going to these violence prevention organizations, how -impact report.
To be transparent, an impact report about the funding that's going to these violence prevention organizations.
Let me do this too, because -- and he has a right to address this in a public setting, so it's on the record. But could you two also as men follow-up after having a frank conversation about the issue?
We have met four times. Probably three or four times.
And nothing comes from these meetings. Privately. I'm at a point now -- this is why I'm at this point. I can't take it no more. Every year I've addressed him on this. Now it's like, are you going to do it? I keep approving this budget and I'm like, you know, you're playing with me. It's not okay. I come here to serve people and I -- all I ask is that we serve people well. It's unacceptable that I have to call you. Your job is to call me. Not because of a -- it is nothing about my title or who I am. That is the position. You're supposed to coordinate with every office, no matter how hard it is. If I have to call you all the time, that means you're not doing what your job description says you're supposed to be doing. Thank you, Council President.
Dr. Phillips, anything else you want to wrap up with, sir?
Sure. I'll respond to the -- to the data portion of that. Again, Councilmember, we've had several external audits of our grants program that are public. We have just -- we have our grants. All of our grants -- grantees, whether it's T6EG, whatever that is listed in public information on our website. We are launching with Philly Stat 360, a more professional and in depth look at those grantees. And we're going to be adding to that over the time. But it has published their grantee amounts. It has where they operate, it has points of contact. All of that's thanks to Philly Stat 360 support. We will continue, as I said at the beginning of my testimony, with our data team to look at the data, to continue to -- when we receive, when we're going through our technical assistance, when we're looking through their receipts and paperwork, be able to publish as much as we can. We will be very transparent in that work.
Could you provide that information to members of the Chair to provide the members of Council, just for the record?
The Chair recognizes Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore-Richardson, Councilmember Jim Harrity, then Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Council President. And I just wanted to reiterate, I think I heard communication, collaboration, and partnership. And in the spirit of Council President, I too respectfully request, on behalf of Councilmember Phillips, my neighbor in Council, that you all have a secondary follow-up so that you're able to meet. As my former mentor -- my former boss and mentor always says, Eyeball to eyeball. You all need to sit down one on one eyeball to eyeball, to iron out any wrinkles. Okay. So I just wanted to put that on the record. But thank you all so much for being here. I have to start with my thank you's, Council President, you stole my thunder at the beginning. But I will and must get these thank you's on the record so please bear with me. To Commissioner Bethel, thank you very much for your leadership, your extraordinary leadership. Everyone talks about you from across the country, every city that I visit, other elected officials, thank you for your leadership. To First Deputy Stanford, who I still have saved as Captain Stanford in my phone. Thank you so much for all of your leadership. To DC Healy, I see you there. Deputy Commissioner Dales. Thank you so much, Deputy Commissioner Joe Dales. Krista Dahl-Campbell, Myesha Massey, Vanore, Kelly, Rosario, Cram. I have to shout out Inspector Goodson. Thank you so much, Inspector Goodson. All of our PPD captains, there are too many to name, who are helpful to my team, for all of our constituent matters. A point of personal privilege and must recognize our 19th District captains, and Captain Nuble, and our new captain, Captain Metellus. And also in the 22nd, Captain Sprowal. And in the 14th, the entire 14th PPD. Thank you for the work that you do with the CERC Center in Councilmember Cindy Bass's district. They are phenomenal, the work they do with the CERC Center, with our young people. And finally, have to recognize Central detectives. And you all know why; I don't have to say. Thank you. Thank you, thank you for what you did for me personally when it mattered most. Thank you to the Dignitary Protection Unit and to our police chaplains. And I have to recognize one in my soro, Archbishop Mary Floyd Palmer, who is here with us this afternoon. And then two, Public Safety and Adam Geer and to Joshu Harris, to Shondell Revell, Anthony Murphy, Adara Combs, Marni, and to your entire team. Thank you very much for the work that you all do. Because we have such an open collaborative relationship, you know, that typically we work on these matters throughout the year. But I wanted to get some of this on the record because we're trying to traverse through the hearing we just had with Licenses & Inspections, as well as the continued nuisance business work that we're doing, in addition to the continued curfew work that we're doing. You know this year will be five years of our CERC Centers. And our commissioner, Ali, told us in our DHS hearing that as of February of 2026, the CERCs have served 3,228 youth, and have received over 79,000 visits from our young people in the city. So I just have to get all of these questions on the record on those two issues. So relative to nuisance businesses, can you all discuss the amount of chronic nuisance violation citations that have been issued by PPD, broken down by fiscal year? If you could focus on just and 25, and then 7 the same thing for the critical 8 nuisance violations, citations, that 9 PPD has issued. 10 And then finally, on 11 nuisance businesses, how many 12 nuisance abatement plans have been 13 entered into for FY26 and '25, and 14 how many businesses are currently 15 not in compliance with their 16 abatement plans. That's just on 17 nuisance business. And then for 18 curfew, I wanted to know how many 19 minor curfew violations there were 20 in FY25, and how many so far for 21 FY26?
I wanted to put that on the 22 record because I know now that the 23 weather's warming up, we're starting 24 to see more young people out on the street past curfew. And we know the policy that we have is to try to reunite them with family, but we do want to try to get them to the CERC Center so we can get them connected to resources within their community. So I wanted to talk about the plan for curfew for this summer, and trying to get more of the young people to the CERCs. And then finally, the Police Science and Explorers. You know the School District recently launched the Police Science CTE program that we're really excited about and it's via Mastbaum. And I wanted to know how PPD is supporting the new Police Science CTE program, and how many current participants are in the Police Explorers program. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: It's like a compound on top of a compound to the -- to the compound.
I was trying to get it all in before the bell rung. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I know. I know. Let me first work a little bit backwards. I mean, as far as curfews last year, we had 354 curfews last year for the 2025. We have 63 so far this year. As you're aware, we started a three-tier diversion program in which curfews are a part of that as well. I'm sure Commissioner Ali indicated that our diversions are going and some of those cases are going to the part of their ecosystem, of the providers that they provide as far as our diversion work. As they go down, you know, commercial corridor or nuisance business sweeps, 90-4400, we had 64 total sweeps, 162 business checks; 52 of those sweeps particularly focusing on the auto body shops and commercial areas. Ten stops, which led to ceasing. In 2025, there was 160 investigations. I'll give this on paper to you.
Yes. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Eighty were mailed intent to cease for chronic or critical. And of that 2025, 33 received cease operations. We have a list of those pending abatements, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12 abatements that are pending now. Moving into -- we did short dumping, 180 investigations, seven arrests, eight warrants, and judgements and quite some amount of money. I think -- I don't know if I covered all of what you asked. Is -- was there another area that you were asking me about, Councilmember?
Yes, just the chronic nuisance violation citations versus the critical versus the nuisance abatement plans. And I don't mind taking the data for it if it's available. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Right now they're sharing with me 2025. There's issues, 12 were pending, 9 four received so far this year with 10 seven pending. 195 letters were 11 issued citywide. 12
Okay. Okay. And we'll 14 follow-up with the Nuisance Business 15 Task Force. We work with DC Healy 16 and the team very closely. 17 COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, 18 ma'am. 19
But I wanted to get 21 that on the record so folks could 22 see and hear how things are working 23 thus far, particularly for this 24 fiscal year, after, you know, 9-4400 and some of the additional work we've done on the abatement plans. And so I wanted to get that on the record. And I heard the numbers as well for the curfew violations. And then are you all working with the Police Science CTE program? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes. Yes. Chief Gillespie, who oversees our academy, has worked with the Mastbaum program, as that work gets underway. I know the Neubauer Foundation was also supporting us as we get underway. The greatest challenge is -- as you know, Councilmember, it's facing is we have an 18-year-old and that bridge to 20.
Right. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And so, part of -- so we have some concurrent things going on additionally, as it relates to creating a cadet program. We -- this body afforded us some money. I think it was a year -- over a year ago. But we had to be -- instead of pouring it into what we did not have, really being intentional about creating the structure. And so Commissioner Dale and Commissioner Massey have been working with our city OHR, they're working through that process now of creating that cadet position.
Okay. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So we can bring young people in -- over -- with funding to create that bridge. We also have a number of civilian positions that we have, that we believe at 18 years old those young people can fill those positions as well. So we have a lot of things to work through because of the civil services testing. They got to be on a list, you know. And so oftentimes -- but they're not, right? And so we have some things -- but we are working in that direction. But not just relying -- we need multiple sources to be able to -- be able to bring young people. Mike Garvey has been working with the city team as part of Community College program to bridge individuals into our program.
Okay. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: That is some of the work that we're working through now, particularly as a new forensic center comes underway. So there's a lot of different avenues that we have to work on to be able to bring young people, particularly that bridge, because if we don't have a job for them at 18 years old. It's hard for them to stay until they get to 20. And so the team has been working hard to be able to continue that bridge.
Thank you. Well, thank you very much, Commissioner. I only have one additional question that I will submit for a written response.
Thank you very much, Council President. But I just wanted to say thank you. You know, I'm excited about the Police Science CTE program. It's something that we worked with Mastbaum on for over four years. So I'm excited to see the program up and running and the additional work that you all are doing on the back end to create that cadet position so that we can keep those young people in the pipeline from 18 to 21 before they can apply for the Police Academy. So that's really exciting. Finally, and I've been asking everyone this, do you all have any Class 100 under spend? And did you have under spend for FY24, '25? And if you have any anticipated under spend for '26? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: As far as positions, Class 100 positions?
Just -- yeah. Just for Class 100 in general? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes. Yes. We have positions -- well, first and foremost, the police officers, 1,200 of those, and then from our civilian workforce. So we do have positions within the Class 100 that are not -- they're under.
Okay. Do you know what the percentage of the allowance is? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I do not.
I think we can get that on the back end. Okay. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, Commissioner and team. And I hope I said Cram, because I had Cram listed here. Did I say Cram? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah.
Okay. I wanted to make sure because I wrote it to the right. But thank you very much, Council President. Thank you to the entire PPD team. We appreciate you all.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity and Majority Deputy Whip Councilmember Cindy Bass, then Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. Like everybody else, start off with all the thank you's. You know, I always have to thank our first responders. You know, I come from a family of first responders. You guys know that my grandfather was a firefighter. My father was a police officer. They were always opposite. And just to throw a little bit more in, my mother was a crossing guard. So utmost respect for you and what you do. And as like my colleague, Katherine Gilmore-Richardson said, I'm happy to hear that we're making progress with the cadet program. That was one of the things I fought for when I first got here, as well as the more drones. Going to ask some quick questions, that way I can just get them on the book because of time, right? So -- and also, Adam Geer, Public Safety, you guys know I have to give a definite shout out to my wife Marnie and her work husband, Natalie, if he's here, he's around somewhere, I'm sure.
Yeah. He sees her more than I do nowadays, but that's okay. She's doing the work. Just have -- like I said, I want to throw a quick couple questions out there. You can answer if you get the time. If not, then you can just get back to me on what you can't answer. So for police, first, how has the PD progressed in reducing drug related activities, including getting drug dealers off the streets of Kensington, specifically the 24th and 25th Police District? Shout out to the 24th and 25th, people I torture regularly. And our deputy commissioner, who is doing a fantastic job. What specific strategies or initiatives have proven effective in this effort? How will you deploy quality of life assurance officers to every district -- to every district, be integrated into the initiative already in place? How will it integrate with the initiatives that are already in place? And then for public safety, just for my neighbors, I -- you know, I live on a little street in Kensington, and I'm -- actually live directly around the corner from Weymouth Street. I know as the city official that a lot of the services we are giving over there are services that are provided to most citizens. We may just be expediting over there because we're trying to keep the block, but there's a lot of rumors, small neighborhoods, people sit on the stoop. I sit out of my stoop every day when I get out of work and talk to my neighbors. And they are banging me because they keep -- there's all this thing about extras that the Weymouth Street is getting, that aren't being done in other places. Paying the bills, clearing up of taxes, just things like that that the normal everyday citizen in my neighborhood are saying, Well, we get it, we want to keep them out of here too. But, you know, I live on Willard Street, which has Hilton and Madison right behind it. And they're two of the bigger fentanyl corners in the city. Our guys over there in blue do a fantastic job. Just want you to just explain for my neighbors a little bit on what the things are, maybe how we're just trying to expedite so we can keep that, and that what services are also available to them. And just, you know, a little bit of where the money's coming from to give all those services. Because the rumors are like, there's appliances being bought, there's this being done, there's -- you know. So just trying to get it all straight. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
Thank you. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So I'll begin. Just to give you the full context, I mean, last year, working with all of our federal partners and state partners, the police department recovered almost $186 million worth of drugs in the city of Philadelphia. 1,472 buyers were -- dealers were arrested; 1,235 of those were buyers. Total arrest was 2,700, 773 were search warrants. So by context, when I -- you take that number -- of that number, when we look at the Kensington Grid itself, 453 buyers were arrested -- I mean, dealers were arrested. 584 buyers were a total of 1,037, and $5 million of the drugs were taken from that area in the Kensington Proper. And so, you know, where -- our process again -- and Commissioner Stanford, I'll let him jump in. We started down this process of having a five-phase approach. We've been in that space of our approach of really digging into our strategy. As you know, it was challenging. And, you know, from the Kensington Caucuses here, you knew that well before I arrived. The challenge that we're having in Kensington as it relates to addressing. And I know my colleague will talk about how we incorporate the wellness center and the court remediation process, warrant mediation process is having a significant impact. We continue to grow in that space. What we're working with now is to expand that work now. You know, and recently the team introduced a model to me, some new activity. You know, I had talked to Councilmember Lozada around us increasing our narcotics enforcement in there. I have a plan on my desk. There's still some tweaking that needs to be done because we want to make sure we get it right. And so, as Commissioner Rosario has led that work, part of that is resetting amongst our men and women. We've been down there for two years now. And so part of that journey now is to continue to expand. We're seeing reductions, you know that, we're seeing things, but there's certain things that we still have to be highly effective in. And we can't -- complacency cannot be -- or the status quo cannot be that, right? We need to get to that end zone. And so part of that journey too is with the team and they can talk through about working through collaboratively with all of the community folk members down there. I mean, one of the things we have to build, and the team is building now, and they can talk through that, of getting down on the ground and having those meetings. I think they just had a recent meeting, getting the feedback that you're talking about more specifically and more granular, about what is going on down in the Kensington area. There's been -- you know, we -- there's a lot of work being done. We -- as you know, even when we did our fire brigade, we had far fewer issues around the fires that we had in this past winter. We could see a reduction in that work. And so I think the part of the journey is to make sure that we're communicating. As part of that journey is making sure we're being nimble. And, you know, the Mayor has been very focused on that work. And so I let the team -- Commissioner Stanford may want to talk about some more granular things. If you want more detail, I can obviously bring up Commissioner Rosario to give you a more seep of what is -- he's leading the efforts on the ground, doing a phenomenal job doing that. Or we can follow-up in writing if you -- if you prefer something more in writing.
And there's something in writing for time. I mean, the bottom line is I just wanted to get it out there also because I live there, right? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah.
And it clearly -- you could see a difference, right? I'm just afraid with summer coming that we don't take our foot off the gas, that we continue the community approach. Because I believe it's working, and seeing the officers walk through my neighborhood, with five of them out there, just hanging around, just walking. They're not bothering, they're not harassing people, talking to people when they can. I mean, it makes a difference. And you can't deny that the commissioner -- he showed -- we met with the commissioner. And he showed us the numbers. I mean, I remember when I first got in here, the reason I ran is because we had 506 murders and 198 of them were within a one block radius of my house. And those numbers are no -- not even -- it's unbelievable, the change. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I think even when you Councilmen talk about -- you know, I don't have to jinx myself because we had zero shootings in --
Me either, yeah. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I mean, I think yesterday, right, was our first? MALE VOICE: This morning. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: This morning was our first shooting in that pocket this entire year. That is absolutely amazing, right? And so not only is it about the drug elements, it's about the crime fighting and the impact that that deployment is having on there. Our go-to as part of the plan is to train those men and women on the ground. We -- Commissioner Stanford, we've -- we're rotating them out. We're now keeping them stable in that space because they can get more, you know, understanding. But now we're going to start to give them the tools, training them around narcotics, what to look for, what are the things that they should be doing in that space. We think that also is a part of our journey of making sure that they're better prepared, because this -- walking by a drug dealer is not good enough. And do not worry about the gas coming off. Well, first and forth, the Mayor would never accept it. And if Commissioner Rosario stood up and took his jacket off, you would see all of the strikes on his back. Because we've been -- we're pushing and pushing and hitting and saying, we will not stop. And I've made that commitment from the time I walked in the door. We will not stop until we get that community back.
Yeah, we're proud of our commissioner over there. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And we're seeing -- we're seeing the success. But we will not let up until that community feels that vibrancy of that community, and those folks feel, you know, the dignity that they should -- they deserve.
Yeah. As a neighbor, I could tell you it's worth it. We love our deputy commissioner. Mr. Geer, if you could just answer the Weymouth stuff and then we can let my colleagues have at it.
Thank you, Councilmember. And thank you for your support of our efforts in Kensington. Weymouth Street, by way of background, there was a very large scale, intergovernmental enforcement of that organized crime syndicate, which was operating on Weymouth Street. Approximately 30 people were arrested. Really a tremendous effort, intergovernmental effort. One of the things we learned from the previous, actually Action Weymouth Street and other large ones, is the need to have a very targeted, robust response in the aftermath of a -- of a large- scale drug interdiction like that. And what I mean by that is really micro-focused, supporting that specific geographic area and the folks who were basically living in their homes in fear for years. What that looked like -- and this is a pilot by the way; so it's a Drug Market Intervention Pilot, this is something that we are -- we will stand up if there are other large scale coordinated actions that happen like this, where they'll come in, they'll rip out the tree, they'll rip out some of the stem, and now we're coming in afterwards and we're making sure we're getting all of those little seeds and bulbs that might grow into something that we don't want. And then replenishing it with some -- with some good soil, is essentially what we're doing. So we're on that back end. Really being attentive to our residents and their needs in this specific location, which we hope will then translate beyond that. So it's important to note that it is a pilot. You should be seeing more activity in that around -- in that area where folks are now going to be expanding that footprint, to be able to let folks know about the services that we are offering. And we're bringing -90-something percent of this is bringing the services to the door of the people who are there. So, Hey, did you know that we have -- that vector control can come in here, for example, and help with rodent removal? Same thing with title properties. So this is all available citywide, utility bill 10 assistance and basic home repairs. So making those connections for folks, meeting them where they're at. I should note that B and Lehigh, which you also support our work at B and Lehigh, in standing that up. They -- for walk- ins, you can have BenePhilly benefits navigation, that's Medicaid, SNAP, emergency food vouchers, civil legal aid, all the residents of Kensington and citywide really can know they can walk in there and do that. To answer your question around budgetary stuff, most of what I've described is really making those connections. So they're working within the operating budgets of, you know, Vector Control, PDPH, et cetera. There was a small amount of discretionary funds that we had for under spend that we used in some cases for like minor car repairs, appliances when folks didn't have working appliances. A lot of that work was done to build trust, again, with the folks in this area who'd been living in this -- in this, you know, tyrannical drug trade situation, building that trust. And we built that trust thanks to the leadership of Kurt August, and we'll continue to expand that in hoping that there's no 21 footprint or foot in the door for any future drug work there.
I -- thank you for explaining -finding some of that, but I would just say be cautious, with framing it in the way you framed it here with those people were held captive, whatever -- the whole neighborhood's held captive. I'm literally a half a block around a corner, right? It's my neighbor Hilton, Madison, Willard. So my neighbors are in bad shape, too. That's all I'm saying. And I know that -- I'm glad to hear that you're going to be expanding it. Just what I'm getting at is the services that everybody can get that they're getting, we need to do like a door knocker or something with some phone numbers, maybe, stuff like that, so that we can actually just get out there. You know, some of the stuff are specialized, like you just said, that they're just trying to do a thing, but other stuff everybody's entitled to. So maybe just like -
Can I do a point of information -- can I do a point of information real quick? Do you partner with the Office of Neighborhood Engagement to actually canvas Kensington regarding the information that is available for people?
So we have the Neighborhood Action Center there, Council. But you're absolutely correct. The door knockers are -- they're going to be in print soon enough, and we're starting in that area, and it will have all of the resources. We have a similar one for gun violence, but that is -- that should be coming within the next -- soon as we can get them off the presses.
Who are you partnering with to get that information out? Is that your Neighborhood Education Center or just --
We're going to rely on Anton Moore and his team, who we partner with to help us canvas the neighborhood. But we're also going to rely on our Office of Public Safety folks and Merakey, our partners, to get those out.
Yeah. That's fantastic. It's about information. A lot of times, especially the seniors in my neighborhood, they -- some of them don't even have a computer, let alone being able to go online and look it up. You know what I mean? If one of their grandkids or something doesn't come over to see them, they may not have access. So them having a card that has numbers on it, you know what I mean? Our seniors, they like the old school, you know, they want to be able to dial up and try to talk to somebody, even if it's sort of automated -- you know what I'm saying? Even if they're getting prompt around, you know what I mean? Eventually they're going to actually get to talk to somebody.
And, you know, our older citizens, that's the kind of stuff that they need. And that's just getting the information out there. Like I said, we have all these great, great things. For example, I complained one time about nothing for the kids to do in my neighborhood, and the lady gave me a list of free stuff in the neighborhood like this, but my kids didn't know about it on my block; the kids around the corner didn't know about it. It's just getting it out there that we do have services and there are stuff for our kids to do.
And that's in every neighborhood. Is what I'm saying. It's more of us as a city getting it out there. And maybe with Anton Moore now, that'll get done a little bit more often with the collaboration. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And, Councilmember, one of the things we're doing is we -- part of our strategic plan, we're using Zencity, a survey tool, and we'll be -- we have a pilot in district, we'll be going citywide. So as we embark on our strategic plan, we'll be going into communities and surveying those communities, asking questions about how they feel about safety. And hopefully in that process, in all the areas of the city, we'll be able to, one, to see if what we're doing is working, but two, be able to gather information real time. They're able to do it in a very finite way to be able to give that information. I do want to give a shout out when I talk about Weymouth. I don't want to exclude other governmental parties, the Streets Department, Sanitation, L&I were extremely helpful in us closing down, boarding up the block and sealing them, which we appreciate in this process.
Thank you very much, sir. Member Bass, can you extend to me just a little bit of grace for the moment in the queue with Jamie -- Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, then yourself, then Dr. Nina Ahmad, just a little grace. Is that okay? All right. Thank you. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon, Commissioner Bethel and Director Geer. I want to thank both you and your teams for everything that you've done to make our city safer under the leadership of Mayor Parker. I started council in 2020, and not long after I started, we were not only dealing with the pandemic, we were dealing with spikes in gun violence that we had never seen before as a city. And in West and Southwest Philadelphia in particular, it was miserable and it was dark and it was bloody, and sometimes it's even hard to think back on it. And obviously as a Councilmember, we don't have direct control over public safety outcomes, but when your community is suffering like that, it's very heavy and you carry it with you every single day. And so I just want to thank you all. And obviously, you know, coming out of the pandemic, crime has gone down everywhere, but the drops in Philadelphia have been much steeper. And so we have to give credit, not only to just the pandemic ending, but to the efforts of you and your teams and the efforts of everyone in our communities who have dug in on this issue. So thank you, thank you, thank you. That being said, I do have some questions about how we keep our foot on the gas, especially with what's going on in my area of the city over the past week and a half or so. So as soon as the weather warmed up here, we had four high profile shootings in my district within a span of a few days. It's hard to watch us take so many steps forward and then fear that we're taking a step back at the same time. So can you share what plans you have to address the recent spate of violence in West Philadelphia? In particular, I'm speaking about the mass shooting at 60th and Market, and then the homicide or there were several shootings around the 60th and Market area, and then there was a homicide at a corner store at 40th and Market. And as it relates to the store at 40th and Market, this is a nuisance business, it's been on our radar for years. It has currently violations since 2022, and in 21 2023, a 21-year-old young man was 22 shot multiple times in the face and 23 in the chest and died at the same 24 location. And so, my question is, when we have multiple acts of violence and code deficiencies at the same business, how are we working across departments to bring serious enforcement and accountability so that these problems do not repeat themselves? We knew that this location was a problem for a while; the community spoke up on this location for a long time. And I know that L&I and PPD have expanded their partnerships in the nuisance business space recently. And so with a property like this where we saw a murder in 23, what can we do so that we don't run into the result we saw last week which was another murder at the same establishment? So if you could just speak on that. And again, thank you for all of your wonderful efforts, but how do we keep our foot on the gas so that we don't see these rising levels of violence continue? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, I appreciate, thank you for the question. I mean, first and foremost, as I shared with you, this is the time, right? April -- from this point on April into the end of the fall will be -- is our most challenging period in the department as it relates to violence, particularly when it starts to warm up --