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 --
Yeah. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: However, that being said, despite all that, we're still seeing significant reductions in -- and reductions since years passed. A part of our -- part of our work is, you know, when we have upticks in violence, no matter where they are every -- at 8:15 every morning, my team is on a call with all the commanders across the city. It is expected during that period at 8:15 every morning that they are going through what is the issues around the violence? What are those things that we can address immediately? And then what are those long-term things that we need to do to make sure proactively it doesn't continue? The first step is to move more assets into that location, and you saw that, you know, the inspector will move additional personnel into that. We then, we'll move into our second phase. We have a shooting review team that will go through all of our shootings, in particular these shootings, to make sure that we are looking at all of the analytics. I mean, whether this is the conversation or get into what gangs were involved that we believe activity was involved in these. But we do believe this was rooted in some type of gang -- potential gang activity, that's where you get the unfortunate innocent bystander killed on Market Street or the bar job across the street where an individual walks up in a car, gets out and shoots, same thing that happens on Market Street. And fortunately, as you know, we're - we, through the work, and again, through technology and good police work our detectives have identified two individuals who are now wanted for the shooting on Market Street. We did serve search and warrant -- search warrants a couple of days ago -- did not -- the Marshals now have that, those search warrants, and we're very much looking for the two individuals. There was total of four involved, but we've definitely identified two of those. We've recovered the vehicle. We already have good leads on the job on 60th Street across from the bar. As it relates to the Market, street and the store, our expectation is that we follow-up to determine whether -- we're very careful, right? Because as you know, many of our bars and many of our stores are a place where people are waiting for someone to come or, you know, I mean, and not some. So we're very careful not to indict a business owner or a store owner as the reason why, particularly in a case where someone is seeking out someone and they're just looking for a -- the opportune spot to do harm to them in this case shoot, and unfortunately this case killing. So I don't have the information on your letter. My team is telling me a letter has been issued on that property, and we're waiting on that status with L&I. So we are following up in that regard, but that should be normal operating procedure. Commissioner Massey, part of what we're building out our community partnership, and she's done a really good job, is really being very intentional about what you described but also being careful that unfortunately some of our own business owners have nothing to do with the crime. But unfortunately, individuals will see their space as a place to engage in that crime.
That may be true, but this store does have -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, I understand.
-- dozens of violations. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, we will definitely look through that. I don't know if we had all of that, but we will definitely look through the additional violations that you outlined and make sure we're addressing that appropriately.
I will add something to the nuisance business thing if I may, Councilmember. There are two things that we're doing internally that are -- one is the working group that we have for our nuisance folks, and that is an intergovernmental approach. And the reason why I hesitate is there is some work happening around nuisance properties that we're just not prepared to talk about publicly now.
But the Police Department is leading that nuisance business task force. We recently added the Law department to that as another element of this, obviously they're going to be a necessary partner looking at all aspects of what we can do around enforcement of nuisance properties. We also, within the Office of Public Safety, have a tactical meeting that we run where we're working with the Police Department and the various captains in the area, as long -- as well as all of the other city services that are available to address specific nuisance property issues in real time.
Thank you so much. I just want to say that I'm here to be your partner, my whole office is, in particular, if we can sort of just be watchful and maybe even ramp up what we're doing around group violence, this type of group violence locked West and Southwest Philadelphia down during the pandemic. And I would hate to see that come back when we've made so much traction. I also have to give credit to our DA that has made a focus of his work taking these groups down, right? So anything that we need to do to ramp up there. And then again, with the nuisance businesses, I want to know what we can do to escalate not just giving businesses violations after violation, after violation, while they continue bad behavior, but escalating and getting them shut down, if necessary, because it's very much a public safety issue. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We'll definitely will follow-up. And just so you're aware, Friday we have a class graduating and part of our deployment. One of the things we see oftentimes is because of the borders between our districts, in that case, the 18th and the 19th District. So the Commissioner Stanford will be deploying foot beats that'll go across boundaries, they'll go into the 18th across into the 19th, particularly in the area we're seeing that heightened violence. So on Friday, you'll see some additional relief as a result of the activity we just recently saw.
You're welcome. Majority Deputy Whip Councilmember Cindy Bass, then Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad, then Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, then Councilmember Landau.
Thank you, Mr. President. Good afternoon. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Good afternoon.
How's everybody doing? So I just want to start out by saying best police department in the nation -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: There you go.
Best police department in the nation. Absolutely, hands down. I want to say a quick thank you and shout out to Captains McCoullum in the 14th, Burks in the 35th, Bradley in the 39th, as well as to you, Commissioner Bethel, your deputies; Dales, Healy, Smith, and of course, mighty Massey. Vanore, Stanford, every -- listen everybody. I really shouldn't call names --
I should not call names because I get in trouble. But I really want you to know that I really, sincerely from my heart, mean it that the Police Department hands down has been so responsive to our needs and requests. I appreciate it and I want all of you all to know that -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
Oh, and I forgot on my little list here. My inspectors: Beaufort, Thomas, Dray Thomas and Palumbo. And I also wanted to mention officer, I'll just say Officer Jamir, who is my -- one of my nephews who just recently graduated from the academy and, you know, is so excited. And he has a whole village that is rooting for him. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: He's not supposed to tell you any of the secret sauce, though.
He has not told us the secret sauce. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: All right.
Not yet. But now that I know there is a secret sauce, I'll be asking him tonight. No, but he's super excited, and again, he has a village around him that intends to support and uplift and make sure that he's the finest police officer that he possibly can be. And while we talk about, you know, having a village around you, there are so many young people around us whose village is in pain and turmoil right now from the trauma of losing them. And so every year I mention some of the same cases, and I just wanted to see if there was any sort of status update in some of these cases. And I really want to say the names because I don't want them to sort of get lost in the sauce. And the first case I want to thank you for is the solving of the case of Devin Weedon, who is a 15-year-old who was walking to school down the street from Gratz, and that was solved last year. And I really want to thank you for that, for your hard work on that. I also wanted to mention Jeremiah Wilcox, who was shot and killed. He was a 13-year-old, who was shot and killed on a porch with a bunch of other people, and that case has not been solved. It's been at least three or four years now. Dayemen Taylor, who was shot outside of -- or on his way home catching a bus from Imhotep, who was a senior, which I believe that that case has not been officially closed even though we think that the perpetrator himself was a victim of gun violence. So is that being worked on or working towards closure for that family? Also, 13-year-old Amir Akers who attended Wagner Middle School, who actually lived in Councilman Phillips District, but attended school in my district, and that was just last week. And then there was a young man who was also an Imhotep student, Khyon Smith Tate, who was killed on Temple's campus in the Chipotle bathroom, you may remember back earlier this year. He was, I believe, 15 or 16 years of age, and I don't believe that that case has been solved. And finally, there was another young man, Mekhi Partlow, who was a straight A student working part-time at Burger King, was coming home on the bus, got off the bus and was shot and killed. And so, these are cases that have been, you know, I stay in touch with most of these families, I'm familiar with most of these families and connected in some way or another. And again, the village is looking for closure, and so we ask that, I know you probably don't have those cases, you know, at your fingertips right now, but we would appreciate a response in writing when you have the opportunity to go back and do some research on those cases. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. Yes, ma'am. And first, I appreciate you keep elevating them and raising them up, you know, Gratz School job, I think about that all the time because I was the Chief of School Safety and was on location shortly after the young man was killed. And glad to see that job came to closure. Dameyen, his mom text me --
Yes. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I made a connection with his mom and --
Yes. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And haven't talked to her, you know, recently, but near the end of Christmas. And as she continues to honor her son and --
Yes. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- know -- and I know Commissioner Venore, we pushed hard on that job. So we'll -- we can share with you an update across all of these. We'll also ensure that our Victim Advocacy team is reaching out to those families to make sure they know that they have a bridge and someone to be able to continually share information as we get to gather that information. But I appreciate you bringing these cases to light, and we'll definitely follow-up with you before the end of the week with a status on each and every one of them.
I don't think there's anything harder than seeing a young person laying in a coffin -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Nothing.
I don't think that there's anything worse in the world than to see what looks like, you know, a young man, a child. And when I went to Jeremiah Wilcox's funeral, it's just, you know, the image is just forever seared in my mind because he looked like a baby, he looked like a little kid, even though he was 13, he looked very, very young. And so just, and I appreciate your work and I know that we'll hear a response from you all and I appreciate that. I just want to say that -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
A couple of things, nuisance businesses, I know that my colleagues have discussed this several times. One of my pet peeves, and I've discussed this before, is how in my district, a number of these nuisance businesses, we park a police car outside of the businesses, and the cars are there, you know, they rotate at shift changes. And it just really kind of burns me up a little bit that it seems like the cause of the trouble is getting police protection. That's what it feels like, and I know that's not exactly what it is. You're really parking cars here to keep people from shooting one another. But nonetheless, it feels as if these cars are parked outside of a problem. And so rather than working with, you know, like L&I as my colleague Councilwoman, Jamie Gauthier mentioned, rather than working with L&I to get them shut down, you know, I just think it would be a much bigger impact on police resources if we have PPD working to say to L&I, you need to close them. Like they need to go, like immediately, when we see these kinds of businesses, and I don't know how we get that authority. If it's something we can legislate, then, you know, I'm willing to write a bill, but that's something that just -- it just needs to happen. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I think we're really growing in this space. I don't know if Commissioner Venore, I mean, or not Healy wants to talk about it, but it's a blended approach, right? Sometimes we are working through that process of looking through a nuisance or a chronic location --
It's legal too. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- but at the same time --
Legal issue. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- we still is also important.
It's a legal issue too. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. And so it is also important for us to put a police officer down there because we want to make sure we're sending the message, I mean, that this violence is not going to continue, particularly when we're seeing high levels of violence. But I fully agree with you, we're getting better and far better at the process going through the tier process, been laid out in the -- in the ordinance to allow us to continue that letters and going through that --
Yeah. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- working with L&I and all those entities. But I definitely hear what you're saying, we're definitely trying to use both approaches as -- and because at the end of the day, community wants to say, where's the cop at though? They won't understand if there's another shooting there, and we were doing some kind of behind the scene legislation and I know that's not what you're saying --
No, that's not what I'm saying. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So we kind of like to plant the flag because the incident is already happening. We are already taking action against what they did or did not do. But we also plant the flag to make sure they understand, you know, that we're going to disrupt their flow and their business --
Right. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- as part of that as well.
Because if a business is causing us -- if any particular business is causing us to spend additional money for their taxpayer dollars for that individual's protection, everyone would love to have a police officer and a car parked at the top of their block. Everybody wants that, everybody would feel safer. But the idea that these particular businesses, which in my opinion, invite the foolishness, the chaos, the, you know, unacceptable behaviors, and it's all from generally the products that they're selling, then you know, like it's just, it feels really unfair for the rest of us who are spending, you know, paying our taxes to get police protection. And at the same time, they're getting more than their fair share. And then there's a question of, you know, like are they paying their fair share? I don't know, you know, there, because there's -- well, I'll just say this because the revenue department for a long time was not aware that they were selling liquor by the drink. And we know that Stop and Go's now sell liquor by the drink, and there's a school tax that's associated with that. So we weren't collecting taxes on that for a very long time, so just a thought. And I know that that's not something that you necessarily can do. And one last really quick question, which is --
Yes. My question is about obviously summertime is coming nervousness in the city, you know, that's when things, you know, there's an uptick in activity and violence as we get ready for Philly 250, we're going to see, you know, all kinds of police activity. I'm assuming PPD is going to be working with other police agencies here in the city, whether it's the Housing Authority police, the SEPTA police, that there's all going to be some level of coordination among everyone. Because the thought is that while there's so much activity downtown in the neighborhoods where there isn't as much activity, there'll be other activity which will require police involvement. So -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. And I shared that earlier --
Yes. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- before you came in, we have a significant deployment plan. We will be using additional outsides out of the Police Department collaborating --
And I just want to make sure that's not going to include ICE, right? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, ma'am.
Okay. All right. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, I mean, but we are going to have -- but we also recognize, you know, part of the Mayor's 250, we're going to have a lot of neighborhood events. And as I shared earlier in Council, that is one of our more violent days. July 4th in particular is one of our most violent days that we have historically going back decades. And so we will be doing a lot of work in the -- in the community to make sure we are -- we're providing, you know, the safety for the community as well as the events that are -- that we are going to be dealing with throughout the summer period.
Okay. Thank you very much. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: You're welcome, ma'am.
Deputy whip. You good? Straight? All right. You're welcome. No 6 issues later on. The chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad, Rue Landau, Quetcy Lozada, Kendra Brooks.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon to everyone to our public safety partners who are here. Thank you for joining us. I first want to start, like my colleagues, by saying thank you. And first, I want to say thank you to every PPD member who puts themselves out there every day. I deeply appreciate that you take that risk on our behalf, and I thank you and all your members for that. You know, this is obviously a collaborative space right now with Public -- Office of Public Safety and PPD here, and your dramatic decrease in homicides is extremely laudable. I wanted to also thank the Public Safe -- Office of Public Safety for your partnership in getting that $500,000 human trafficking RFP off the ground. I'm very excited of the next steps and how the city will see how that money is being used and how we are actually having a strong awareness and prevention program with all the parts that you have allocated for that. And I wanted to give a special shout out to the -- to Adara Combs, the Office of Victim Advocate within the Office of Public Safety for your leadership in moving this RFP and of course, Adam Geer for keeping the work moving forward. That said, the question. The question is for Police Commissioner, the fact that we know sexual assaults are increasing, percent increase in 2024. The department's assault clearance rate in 2025 was percent as opposed to 5 gun clearance, which was 79 percent. 6 And I wanted to know -- I did not 7 see any specific benchmark for 8 improving this clearance rate. If 9 you could speak to that. 10 COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. 11 We recognized coming out last year, 12 and actually even in this year, that 13 we're seeing an increase in our rape 14 cases, and so part of the incredible 15 work that the Commissioner Venore is 16 doing now, is really getting into the details, exactly what is going on, i.e., stranger rapes is always a concern in this -- in this regard. And what are the assets and the things we need to do to be able to increase our solve rate? These are very challenging cases, as you know.
Yes. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Very, very challenging cases, you know this space. But we recognize that coming out of last year and even continue this year, we're seeing a slight increase in our rates this year. And so the team is working through that process now to identify where are the gaps in our deployment, in our investigations? Where do we need to increase our investigations? But rightfully, you've definitely identified an area that we are focusing on now this year because of what we're seeing.
I also wanted to follow that up with budget allocation in this space. So when you have a gun violence incident, you follow through all the way with deploying resources to try to solve that crime, right? In the case of a sexual assault, because of the sensitive nature of this crime, the -- it starts with PSARC, the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center. And that's where, you know, the victims are sent, they're processed, rape kits are obtained, examination is done if they need further care, including, you know, looking at STD and pregnancy issues; those are all addressed through PSARC. Not one penny does PSARC get from the Police Department. Right now, the -- last year, they got some money, and this year the mayor, again, committed to $300,000, right? So they get reimbursed for their processing of the rape kit from the state. And that number is actually not enough to cover the general support that is needed to do that. So my question is, how come -- and we can have an off site conversation about how can this service be something we prioritize, that we support? And not just the Police Department, it also needs our hospitals to participate. Currently, Drexel University's Nursing Department is what is hosting it, and they're no longer going to be able to host it. So for this crime with this kind of low clearance rate, it tells me it's not a priority. I'm just saying, this is -- on the surface it looks to me, you tell me otherwise. I want to see how our city is taking this seriously and putting dollars, putting thought, giving us a plan, how we are going to address it. Because a sexual assault never leaves that survivor ever; it colors their entire life for the rest of their life. And for us to be -- it seems cavalier. I don't want to say that it is, I know you guys take all of these crimes seriously, but numbers talk, allocation talks. And so if a budget is a moral document, let's see how we're going to solve this, how we make this a priority in the city of Philadelphia. So that's -- maybe you want to answer that before I have a one last question. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I mean, so I hear you, Council Woman. And we take all of the incidents seriously, the men and women in Special Victims. One of the things we went through the national incident-based reporting neighbors they're changing in how they report, so we are reporting more rapes. So that's also accounting for some of the increase in numbers. We have 180 days to -- the state requires that you have your DNA processed in 180 days. Mike Garvin and his team have been able to get that down to 90 days. And so we are, I mean, being, you know, moving very diligently to be able to identify using DNA to address those issues. I know the issue around the center was a little bit around financing or where it comes from. I don't think there was ever any attention, ever whatsoever intention that that would, we believe that's one of the best models you can ever imagine. So I don't have that information as to what happened around, whether it came out of my funding or where that funding came, that it was just where it came from. But you're guaranteed that that's not a system that's going away because it's highly effective for our men and women. So we -- we're still continuing to move forward. We do have a strategy, the team, and I can bring or follow-up with you for purpose of time if you want and give you a full breath of how we take an investigation from beginning to end. Again, understanding the challenges, and particularly when you don't have DNA, and it's a stranger, but that -- my team is working diligently to be able to bring those individuals who engage in this type of behavior into arrest.
Thank you for that. What I would love to see is the Office of Public Safety work with you to have these wraparound services. It has to start in primary school talking about, you know, how we treat each other all the way for it to become a crime of sexual assault. So I need communication with the school district --
-- all of those things. And I need the public safety office to make this a priority because you guys are amplifying what the Police Department is doing and giving them feedback. So I really would love to see a plan of how we are addressing sexual assault in Philadelphia. Thank you, Council President.
Just for the record, could you provide the timeline and the plan to the Chair not provided to members of Council as a follow-up? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau, Quetcy Lozada, Kendra Brooks. And if we have time, Councilmember -- Councilmember Isaiah Thomas and Squilla before we break for lunch. But just for the record, to all the members, the Fire Department will not be here on this afternoon section, so we're going to ask you to continue to come back so we can finish our second round. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
Thank you, Council President. Thank you all for being here. Congratulations to you, to everybody in this room for such an incredible reduction in violent crime in our city and in gun violence. It's -- that work only happens when working together and collaboratively. So I do want to just underscore what I've been hearing my colleagues say, which is that from the moment crime is happening in a neighborhood to actually going to a funeral for a young person, it is extremely important that you collaborate with us as well, because, and the only way to make this work is as each one of you is an octopus, and we are definitely here to do that work with you. So we'd love to see more of that collaboration. But I want to talk about drones. Yesterday, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that drones have become a staple of daily police work since 2024 with drones being 16 deployed 8,000 times in total. We 17 know that transparency and oversight 18 are critical when developing new 19 strategies around public safety. 20 And as chair of the Tech 21 Committee, last year, on February 15th, 2025, I asked for details around the program in a letter to Commissioner Bethel which he responded to, thank you so much. I was alarmed at the time because these drones were purchased with funds from the police foundation, meaning the public and City Council had little awareness and oversight over the original purpose -- purchase. After yesterday's report, I remain alarmed. There are no 10 proper guardrails in place, and that there is a lack of transparency. So I have a slew of questions I would like to put on the record right now. Does the PPD conduct any internal evaluation or reporting on the City's surveillance system? If so, can a copy of that report be sent to City Council for review and made public for concerned residents? I'm asking now, would you be open to submitting an annual report detailing drone use and related metrics like Boston requires? What protections has PT -- PPD put in place to ensure this technology is not misused by individual officers? How effective is the City's surveillance network in reducing or deterring crime? Has the department seen any correlation between the funding invested in surveillance technology and a reduction in crime? If so, can you provide a copy of or access to the data that supports your answer? When will a finalized publicly available policy for their use within PPD and other public safety departments be finalized? How do we ensure that all hardware and software contractors and subcontractors will protect all the data recorded by these drones? Where is the data being stored? Who are the --
Member Landau, like, go ahead and ask them a question because you give like ten questions and expect them to answer --
These are all questions. And are you sharing any of this information with the Trump administration, including ICE? And over the past year, how many court requests has PPD received from ICE to access data collected through the city surveillance network? Last one, can the department provide City Council, preferably made public a report on all requests ICE has made since 2020?
And for the record, I support the spirit of you asking these questions, but can you -- how are you going to answer to these questions, sir? You want to give them a copy of the list?
Yeah. Oh, I also have another list that I'd like to submit in writing, if that's okay. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I mean, the internal evaluation, as part of our policy, we evaluate, just as we do our body-worn camera, to be able to evaluate the footage. When you talk about where that hardware, we use Axon-Skydio is our drone that we use that footage goes into our Axon body worn evidence.com, the same where our camera video codes, the same place where our body worn cameras goes, the same place where the DA's office, the Defender Association and others have access to that footage associated with a crime, so we will do. As relates to annual drone report, I'm not familiar with Boston. Our plan is to present a dashboard to the community. We're working through the finalizing of that to put up a dashboard that will show you the -- similar to Chula Vista that was listed in the article, one of the first companies in California to establish that, to be able to show the missions and that are being flown. There have been about 9,000 missions that have been flown across the city this year -- since we initiated the program. That is our goal, to have that system up and running. I don't know about an annual report, but we're more than glad to look into that. You said protection for not misuse. Our policy, first and foremost, you have to be a certified FAA drone pilot to use the drone. So an officer cannot take a drone and fly the drone without one being over --
Commissioner, I have a point of information. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
You said you're not too sure about an annual report. What would be -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, I didn't say not too sure. I said -- I just said about Boston. I'm not sure what Boston's annual report is.
I heard you say that part. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Right.
But didn't you follow-up and you made a statement regarding an annual report. Her direct question was, as you build this out in the future, would you be willing to provide an annual report of what the drone program looks like, as a matter of transparency? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. That's not a problem. I think what the Council Woman was talking about some more granular things that may not be provided to the public. But that's so my -- not my caution is just yes, we can provide a report, no question about that. What's in the report would have to be something we would have to talk. But we can -- we can walk through that. There's no -- I mean, because you're going to see it. That's why I pivoted to the dashboard. You're going to see what was in -- what we're flying every day, all the time, and then we can obviously create a report from that. So no 23 pushback there, sir. You know, again, talking about the men and women who are -- protection against misuse, we have a policy as you know to ensure that you know, I mean that -- what the drone can be used for. I know there are entities around surveillance. We do not do surveillance with the -- with the -- with the devices we know or we can't use it. I mean, we need a warrant to go into a home. You know what I mean? So we can't. There's certain things that we have significant prohibitions on what we use. This is a first responder model, you know, it is flying two priority one and priority two cases or in the four designated districts we have now. In that case, the officer is hitting the CAD, the button on his CAD's, Computer Aided Dispatch system, where that drone will automatically fly to that location and where the pilot will take over. So we're not doing surveillances; we're -- you know, that is not how the process operated. It operates as an emergency response to be able to do, it operates as a situational awareness to make sure that the officers help -- give them live feeds of what they're encountering on the ground. We believe this is going to be a benefit for us. It improves, you know, deescalation and some of the staffing gaps that we have as it makes sure that an officer who's on the ground, oftentimes by themself responding to a priority one case. Then finalizing, the policy, I believe we -- the policy went out on 4/25 -- 4/28/25.
Okay. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: The policy is -- but it is redacted because there's certain things that is not exposed to the public. I believe there was some incident that was pulled down. I don't know if that be the case, but I will double check that. I think ICE, we do not -- we do not provide any of our footage to ICE. However, just like any federal entity, if they were to get a federal subpoena requesting that there was something that engages ICE, but they have not asked us to deploy with them, we have not deployed with them. But as you know, as a -- as an attorney, if we were to receive a federal subpoena for any of that activity, we would be required to turn that over. I think that was the last thing.
Thank you, I think you got the majority. I have a question. You're saying that the policy that's online now that's redacted is the current final policy, or is it being updated? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I believe so. That'll be the case. That is correct. And just so you know, Council Woman, now, we had a video earlier, we weren't able to show it. We would've shown you in that video an incident on the park where a young man with special needs who got lost from his parents. And because we were using the drone, we were able to find that child in eight minutes. You would have seen in that video where Marshalls are doing a high-risk warrant, and an individual retreats himself in a -- in a kind of a -- what do you want to call it? Some kind of box or whatever. He was -- some shed that was in the back of a yard. That situational awareness allows those men and women to come in different tactics knowing that the person's in there, to potentially minimize the use of deadly force. And so we see this as a force multiplier. And we also recognize that it's ahead of the courts. It's ahead of the, you know, folks who think that we're surveilling and we have been very -- and finally, I know you have, you've kind of talked about the foundation. The foundation was a feeder into what the city gave, over $2 million, to support our drone project. We started this process, and here in 2023 came out of the blueprint for Philadelphia around drones, and bringing drones as a -- as a tool for us to be used in this space. From that, we took that charge from this body and moved forward with implementing what we think is one of the more formidable drone programs in the nation. We are one of the top because of how we're operating, how we're doing it effectively.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, the Minority Leader Kendra Brooks, Isaiah Thomas, then Councilmember Squilla will wrap us up for the first round.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon at this point. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for your partnership. I know every member has a different relationship with different city departments. I have to say that last year, the year before last, and probably the year before that, there were a lot of folks who said that we would not decrease public safety or we would not improve public safety and decrease crime in districts like the 7th Council District because it was just too out of control. And working in partnership with the Police Department, but very specifically with Deputy Commissioner Rosario and the men and women in the 24th, 25th, and in the 15th. I think that the reason why we are seeing the historic decrease in crime is because we have been able to stabilize to a certain extent the Kensington community and quality of life in the 7th Council District. I work very closely with you all around the 24-hour cleaning pilot business curfew, we've done program oversight, we've increased police presence, we coordinated mobile services, we've supported the Wellness Center, pad officers. And you've done all of that prioritizing community voice, community support, community buy-in, and for that, I have to say that I'm extremely grateful because we would not be here today. And I'm not saying that life in the 7th Council District is where it needs to be, but I think that life is significantly better in the 7th Council District because together allowing the community to be a part of the strategy and the work that is being done on the ground is why we are where we are today. And so for that, I am extremely grateful. That being said, what are we doing to ensure that all of the work that has been done is sustainable and that we are going to continue to see an increase and an improvement in quality of life in the 7th Council District? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, first I want to thank you and the caucus. I know when the time I arrived between you and the Kensington Caucus has been laser focused on this work. And so I just want to say thank you. I mean, this doesn't get -- this doesn't get happening if you don't have the supports from the -- from the -- from the team and more importantly, giving us the tools to be able to put in place to help us along this journey. I know it's taken far longer than you at, you know, and we know that. And so what I like to do, I know I've talked a lot, but I want folks to hear Commissioner Rosario, I want him to come up briefly and just talk through what he's doing. What are the next steps? I mean, here's a person who's been leading the Kensington area project since the day I arrived. And I think it -- it's fair to him and to -- and it's to his body to hear what's happening on the ground, what he's doing. The things that he's done to set the foundation and our steps moving, particularly as Mr. Stanford has pushed him to elevate the work for the summer period coming.
Thank you. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Come on up. I won't be able to roll my R's like he does, but we'll make it work.
Good morning, Council Woman. Good morning, Council. Council President -
Yes, sir. Pedro Rosario, Deputy Commissioner for the Philadelphia Police Department. To your point, ma'am, the -- one of the biggest concerns that we've been -- we've been focusing on is the summer surge, right? We know as the weather gets warmer in Kensington, we see an uptick in our unsheltered and the focus really for us to really stabilize that quality of life in that area has been to slowly, gradually address that number of people that are constantly in our -- in our space. And I cannot tell you the amount of collaboration and effort that has gone to work with all of my colleagues in city government, especially Office of Public Safety. Director Geer and his team really lockstep with us in being able to support the Wellness Center and those operations that go on there. You know, I'm very proud of that work. Initially -- also, I'm someone that I don't want to leave out at acknowledging the support is First Judicial District from the courts, right? They have rolled up their sleeves along with us understanding that this is a societal problem that requires a very, very complicated and collaborative response from all of the government, including the courts. So having them in hand with us has been able really to address that population and we are continuously, although gradually, to bring that number down each month as we compare over the last couple of years. One of the big things was, we just -- recently, we stepped up to a second day of wellness operations, so now we're operating two days a week. The anticipation is that we'll be able to expand that very quickly before the summer approaches to be able to continue to address that populace there. But the other thing to what the Commissioner was leading to or so is also the enforcement piece, right? We're not slowing down with regards to taking the dangerous criminal element off the street. We're doubling down on our efforts and making sure that the officers assigned to the -- to the mini station, we're trying to provide them additional training and partnership with our narcotic strike force to be able to give them that added situational awareness when they're operating on the street to be able to be proactive against the drug dealer, right? So that's a lot of that specifics -- specificity that we're addressing now to be able to attack some of the issues that we're still dealing with today. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And I want to be clear, I mean, I attended a meeting, as you know, last -- was last week. And you're in -- and I will tell this body was one of the most phenomenal meetings I've been in. I go to a lot of great meetings, and so I'm not cherry picking, but to see the number of people, almost 200 to 300 people. The energy of -- their zest for making sure their support, and seeing Principal Green from Conwell Middle School, sitting in that crowd still there from the day I met her when I was at the School District, and that commitment, and she sits her school in the epicenter of that area. We will not -- we will not, and that Mayor has made that a very clear, going backwards; we're going to hold and move forward and hold and move forward. There is no 8 holding and going back, that is not in our structure. It's not in our DNA. And there has been too many commitments, too much investment. And when I look at that community, I walked away from there filled with pride and filled my engine up to say, we know our why, Council Woman. We know our why as it relates to that community, and we know your caucus, and all of you, your why. We're honored to be serving in this place, and we're going to win. We're going to win for you.
I believe that, right? I think that there is a sense of hope to win in the district that there was not for many, many years, and so I appreciate that. And it has -- it speaks a lot to the fact that you have someone leading this work that people trust, right? And that people can relate to and who is brutally honest with us when things are not right; he's not afraid to say this is what it is. And so I appreciate and applaud the work that Commissioner Rosario has done in the 7th Council District and in the Police Department. Like many of my colleagues, business -- nuisance businesses are very problematic, right? The 24-hour business curfew was a tool that we put in the police department's toolbox to help us respond to some of the public safety issues that we have. Some of the challenges that we are experiencing is that many of them don't fear a CBN.
-- point of information, Member Lozada, if that's okay. Do we still have the Jump Out Boys? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Jump out? No. 17
Well, excuse me. Narcotics team that goes out into their stores, because I've worked with Member Lozada on this issue and I did a tour in Kensington. And a lot of times, what I -- what I've learned is the store owners are held hostage to the young guys doing the hustling -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Oh, yeah.
So they're not going to tell because they're in fear of their lives. And so the reason why I was just thinking about the narcotics team, because you got plain clothes guys that can run up in these stores, do the operation while -- do this thing while they're outside hustling, while they go inside and do safe harbor inside the stores. And so I was just wondering, because I witnessed that with her, we come down the corridor together, group of guys standing outside, not worrying about if we the Council people or not. And I watch the dynamic of basically we're going to hold the store hostage. And obviously, in that situation, store owner, he's worried more about his life than calling Deputy Commissioner Rosario and saying, hey, these guys are hustling inside my store, because that's putting his life at risk -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No --
And so I just want to get an idea about -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, and we have our violence --
If you could just talk about it for the record, COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes sir. We have our Violence Response Ream, our VRT teams, we have our narcotic strike force that do a lot of street drug activity. But one of the things we see that there's a gap, and that's what Commissioner Rosario is talking about as it relates to Kensington with the number of officers that we have down there now that we're keeping them down there longer, is now the objective is to give them the better skillset to be able to go after those stores and those locations, Clementine, they know, I call them all the time. If I go by that store one more time and see, you know, 10 people outside of that store, there's a problem. So we are looking at that. We understand what we need to do in that space, but we don't have to --
We're not allowed to just run up on, like back in the day, like get against the wall, pat them down.
Yeah. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I mean, now listen, if you put in a bill to give me, you know, we will -- we would entertain it. But --
Understood, sir. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- may be walking out with handcuffs.
-- focus on that because as we -- as we move closer to the events that are going to be happening in the city of Philadelphia, and as we talk about economic opportunities for all, I want the businesses in the 7th who have not been able to benefit from those economic opportunities because of all of the social injustices that are happening on the ground. I want -- I want them to feel like we're creating that opportunity for them. That they -- that they matter too and that there is that opportunity for them. Businesses are not going to choose the Kensington corridor, the Wyoming Street corridor, the North 5th Street corridor, the Hunting Park corridor, if we allow for these types of businesses to continue to occupy neighborhoods. These men and women who don't feel like there are -- there are things to do or there is another way for them to be able to put food on the table and they continue to occupy neighborhoods. If we allow for people to continue to openly use, those things are going to keep those economic opportunities that we are praising and talking about away from those commercial corridors that are supposed to be the economic engines of neighborhoods. And so I just want us to continue to prioritize those neighborhoods that we as government have, for a really long time, ignored and that we've started to make better, right? And that as all of these visitors come into the neighborhood, that when they go to Kensington, because they've seen it on the national platforms for all of these negative things, that when they get there, they are faced and confronted and find something different. So -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
Thank you very much. Councilmember Brooks then Councilmember -- well, just Councilmember Brooks.
Okay. Thank you, Council President. I have some questions --
Speak into that microphone, Minority Leader Brooks.
Okay. I have some questions for the Office of Public Safety. I have a bunch of questions, but I'm going to -- I just want to get these on the record. So I'm going to just go through real quick and then when we come back for the second round, I'll do Police Department and the prisons. So my questions about the Riverview Wellness Center, you know, it has been touted as a success by the administration, but we've had a hard time getting details about the operations, including specifics on the total number of patients and outcomes. So the administration is proposing an additional $211 million in operating fund. What exactly would this $211 million go to? And how is the administration thinking about the long-term financial implications of running this wellness center? Because last year the administration sent a letter to council about Medicaid reimbursement and additional avenues of funding from the state and the feds. What is the status of these reimbursement rates?
Good afternoon, Councilmember. We did have representative from the Riverview Wellness Village, in-charge Director, and I do not see her here. That is an operation that is run out of the Managing Director's office. So I'm not prepared to speak to that budgetary item today.
So how is the office refining success -- I mean, sorry, defining the success of Wellness Court. Are we talking about reduced arrest? Reduced overdoses? Or in date -- engagement with long-term recovery? And this is a series of questions, so I just want to get them all on the record. What is the officer's goal for Wellness Court? What percentage of participants successfully complete Wellness Court and how is completion defined? What are the most common reasons participants do not complete this program? And how does the program track rearrest rates compared to traditional prosecution?
Thank you very much for those questions, Councilmember. We are very proud of how far we've come with the Wellness Court pilot under the leadership of our Director, Eleni Belisonzi. We have undergone now, thanks to the funding last year, we're just about to complete our full funding, full rounding out of that staff compliment, which will be about 9 individuals. 10 You raise really, really, 11 really great questions about how 12 we're defining success, what we 13 think success is in the program, so 14 if I can get into that just a bit 15 here. Success for us looks like 16 what we're seeing, and it is 17 somewhat difficult to find, but what we're seeing is lower street number, counts of folks who are experiencing homelessness on the streets. We're seeing lower overdoses, we're seeing a lower prison population. At the same time, we're seeing more folks engaging with services, more folks being offered services.
Just a point of information. Could you also provide the minority with the actual data?
So the key things that you're saying you're reducing, either you can provide them today or just provide them to us in writing, just for the record, sir.
Absolutely. We absolutely will. I can get into some of those numbers now for you. We had 339 total neighborhood Wellness Court arrests. Now, portion of them won't make it to Wellness Court for various reasons, whether that's the first person they see is a doctor, a nurse rather. So if they're decompensating or if they're not feeling well, if we don't feel that they can continue on, that person will leave the track for the day. They also might have bench warrants, which would preclude them ordinarily from being able to access services. But out of the cases that had bench warrants, we were able to clear approximately 69 percent, and my team will correct me if I'm wrong, 69 percent of those cases. And -- so we're -- that's a first, right? And that is actually operating five days a week where folks are able to have their bench warrants cleared the day of and not have to be taken up to State Road or held in custody over the weekend or something like that in order to -- in order to have their case to continue on in the system. So we define all of those things as success. 165 people received same day behavioral health assessments, 51 were referred to inpatient, 77 were referred to outpatient treatment, 55 people received same day housing assessments. I will give you some more numbers here. And this is one that I really -- I think gets to your point. This is provided by Merakey, one of our primary service provider with our Wellness Court operations. Of 281 people who interacted with wellness court, so of 281 of the people they interacted with, 96 or 34 percent unique individuals subsequently engaged with the Merakey Program after their arrest. So this is after their arrest, 34 percent are actually coming back, so they're aware that resources are available. We've had that initial contact point, which is part of the point of just re-engaging folks. They know that the Wellness Support Center, again, that Director August oversees, is a welcoming place even though the police department staffs a segment of that building pad. They've built up trust in what that location means in the community where folks are coming in, they're getting real meals. Director August said, Adam we need a shower. We need a shower in the Wellness Support Center. This is about dignity. There's a shower where they can come and take a shower. We have medically assisted treatment now, which is in the really nice parking lot where Mural Arts did a mural. So this is all getting to the point of how we're defining success, and that's what success looks like to us. There is a very real -- there's a Court Number that we have to run by the court, which is their definition of the cases complete from the first judicial district's perspective. And I think it's important for me to reemphasize as Commissioner Rosario did, that they have been tremendous partners. We have asked them for a lot; they've dedicated a judge, Judge Losier, who now sits. That's all she does, is sit over Wellness Court for five days, and she's absolutely tremendous. By the court's definition, folks have completed the program. 19 That's a hard court -- hard deadline 20 of the court's definition, right? But success looks to us like they might've pled guilty and their case is over, but a week later they're walking into Kurt's Center and saying, hey, I was just here last week, what -- can you help me?
Thank you very much. Thank you for the data as well, just also make sure we getting in writing though --
-- very comprehensive. To wrap us up before we go for -- we go into our break as Councilmember Majority Whip Isaiah Thomas.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon, everybody. Similar to my colleagues, thank you for the work that's being done. I hear a lot of dialogue today about the crime rate being down. I want to try to go into a different direction. And I do want to apologize publicly because I did tell you I would get you questions ahead of time, and they did not come to you in a timely fashion. So I will own that because that is on me. So I do apologize to that -- for that. But we did get your questions; a couple I do want to get on the record. From 2020, and I -- this wasn't one of my questions, just came to me from sitting here. From 2020 to 2022, the clearance rate was between 50 and 55 percent. As of now, the clearance rate is over 70 percent on homicides. I remember when I first got into office, one of the things that I thought was unique was when you guys took us down to the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, and you briefed us specifically on non-fatal shootings. And I thought it was ironic that we had a better clearance rate when someone actually died compared to when someone actually survived. So, two questions: No. 1, where are we now as it relates to our clearance rate on non-fatal shootings compared to shootings? And No. 2, let's pretend, you know, 10 or 15 years from now, unfortunately something else presents itself. What advice would you give to Philadelphia ten years from now if we were to see a spike in gun violence as it relates to how we were able to address the clearance rate specifically on homicides? What did we do different over the last couple years to get that clearance rate to jump about 20 points? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, I think there's a multitude of factors. When you have a situation where you have over 560 homicides, I mean, that's unheard of to have detectives having on average, frankly, maybe two cases a year, three. When you -- but you're, when you have that level of violence, it becomes far greater and far more challenging to be able to investigate those cases effectively, right? And so you -- so part of that process, one, is how the -- as the crime comes down and the homicides come down, you know, today we are at 31 homicides. Those men and women are digging into all of those, and we have a clearance rate that's over 100 percent -- I think it's 140 percent -- because we're clearing so many of those cases now because -- one time. But technology has evolved today as well.
So you -- so your technology improved -- MR. BETHEL Yeah.
-- from 2022 -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: It is what I said.
-- when we were at 50 percent? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: It is this progression, right? I mean, from the forensics part of it, from the DNA that -- what the DNA team is able to do, whether it be touch DNA, rapid DNA, that kind of DNA is important. The technology that we now have in our homicide, we have the same technology that our federal partners have as it relates to phone technology and other things. We now have license plate readers and the video camera system that we have across the city, you know --
So you would say the investment in technology has the -- is the biggest single because only because -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, it's not the biggest single. No. I talked about --
Point of information. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I'm sorry.
Can I also press you on one issue? Because what's the difference between the strategy in terms of targeting versus cops just going out and just locking everybody up? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I mean, we've always embraced that strategy. You know, that has been the strategy I had before I came back. Commissioner Stanford re-engaged that and the team have been reengaged when it came back. It has been very strategic. We know where our violence is. Even though it's come down in the city, even not talking about the 31 homicides, 130 plus shootings, it's still in the same areas that we always have.
Sure. So a combination of intelligence and technology has -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah.
-- put us in a position to -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So a piece of it, right? I mean --
Yeah. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So when I talk about that, I say if I'm 10 years, I won't be -- I won't be here 10 years, but 10 years from now, I mean, if you're sitting here, I will say the greatest failure is that we did not stay focused on that technology, that we allowed it to fall back. Because that's what we do. It looks great. It's great, it's shiny. We want it, we tell you it's great, but then when it comes to a budget cut that those things are cut, right? We talk about the -- with this giving money to our community groups and out there in the field, okay. I mean, that is working, right? And so we know that is working, the work is working on the OPS. So a part of what we need to do is memorialize all of these things that we're doing. I know with his strategic plan and our strategic plan, linking them together and saying, hey, here's where we are, here's the blueprint. If we -- if it's -- if we believe in the strategy --
Sure. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Everybody is waiting for this to go back. I don't do that.
No, that's just that -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I mean, not you. I'm not saying you're saying that, but every time I -- hey, man, you know -- no. If we believe that the strategy is right, if we believe that the technology is right, if we believe our focus on our core areas and those areas, so to your point, the time we -- I go to hit 10 guys on the corner, I don't need to do that anymore. I just get the one because I know he's the one who -- or he/she is the one who is engaging in that level of violence. So being very strategic with the intelligence. And when you went down to the Delaware Valley Center, I mean that is one of our core areas, right? We can get into the data.
Sure. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We can determine, hey, guess what, two people shot each other. No longer are we trying to figure it out, oh, he's from north side, he's from south side. We got a problem about --
You got the intelligence. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, and --
So where are we at with our clearance rate compared to homicides, compared to non-fatal shootings? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, I mean --
What are we looking at? Can we just get those numbers on the record real quick? Then I want to switch over to driving equality. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, last year, we were -- so one of the things that commissioner brought to the department before I even came back and was under Commissioner Stanford, was really looking at those shootings in like homicides, bringing those men and women, like what they did. We centralized it to a homicide and they sit right next to homicide. So we got two beasts in our space now. 43 percent clearance rate on shootings -- non-fatal shootings. When I left the department, Councilmember, I think it was 12 percent --
19, 20. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I mean, I don't even know it was there.
I remember. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Right? The numbers that they are doing are absolutely some of the best in the nation as it relates to going after those entities.
So Commissioner Bethel take -- because my -- that's my bell and I got to get to driving equality. Take 12 seconds to tell the general public 13 why is it that your clearance rate 14 is higher for a homicide than a 15 non-fatal shooting? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, I mean, I think it's accommodation. One is a smaller number, right? We only have 31 homicides. Two, the clearance rates carry over from previous years. So as they're solving crimes and -- say it again? MALE VOICE: It's calculated different. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So calculated a little bit different. So our SIGs are being calculated in the year that they're happening.
Sure. So I referenced 2022 for a reason because that was the year we passed Driving Equality. And unfortunately, right now, we're still dealing with fights. Whereas though the Supreme Court and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has actually taken the driving equality case as it's been appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which is unfortunate, but it's the situation that we're in. Looking at the fact that crime has dropped significantly since Driving Equality has been into place. Can you talk to me a little bit about how the Police Department is enforcing the law and the impacts it's had on the city since it's been implemented? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I mean, as I share with you, I mean, we categorize -- every time an officer stops an individual, they have to talk, tell the why, you know, what that purpose is. And so what that data has been able to do is really laser-focus on and train them and change the culture that they need to be driving -- stopping cars for these primary offenses. No 14 longer are they able to do those, you know, stops, those pretext stops, that we -- that you identified in your bill. But again, as I shared with you, 90 percent of our work was not that, right? 90 percent of the total number of stops we were making were around car stops. You know, I mean, for individuals who were engaging in things that were outside the scope of the -- with the bill 2 you put forward. And so we've been able to track that information as I shared with you, is a little bit more challenging, getting to more of the granular piece. And we're still working through that, but we can see through the data now, I mean, as we go through our car stops that the men and women are stopping those vehicles appropriately. Obviously, you know, that information is on their body-worn cameras so we're able to capture that. And now, Councilmember, we are able to capture that on their in-car cameras. The in-car cameras, every time the officer turns on his overhead lights to pull over that car, we can now capture the full context of the stop. I mean, and what's engaging in that process. So I think we're in a good place as it relates to moving away from those pretext stops to the more, you know, more egregious type of activity, more aggressive. And we're doing that now as Commissioner Cram has led that effort where we're doing surges in different areas because we are getting a lot of complaints in community meetings about the aggressive driving. We are getting complaints about, you know, folks are not adhering to, I mean, now Broad Street, man, you came -- you know, the lights, the cameras, man, I --
Broad Street is rough. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I got two -- I got $200 worth of tickets my wife got --
That's rough. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- so I tell her she can't drive down Broad Street anymore.
You got bike lanes on 13th Street; that's rough too. Member Thomas, go ahead, sir.
It's ironic that you are getting complaints about people driving aggressively while we're actively trying to do everything we can to calm that. Just for the record, in 2020, we seen more hit and runs in the city of Philadelphia than what we had seen in recent history. It was a significant spike. And based on the work that you and your team has done along with this legislative body, while people are upset about Broad Street cameras, that stuff has been down significantly. And, you know, I always commend Captain Overwise, who's no longer here with us as relates to being with the Police Department for the work that he did leading that effort to put us in a position to try to address those things. As I close out, Council President, in 2024, officers failed -- no. In 2024, officers failed to document violations in about 25-ish, a little less than percent of 14 traffic stops. And we know a big 15 part of driving equality was the 16 data that comes with it. And so 17 we're concerned around the reporting 18 of the data. We haven't been able 19 to put us in a position to 20 essentially collect the data the way 21 we want. 22 But in the midst of what 23 has been reported, previously tint 24 stops made up 19 percent of all traffic stops in 2022. That's only 1.5 percent of traffic stops now. For the record, dent is not a part of driving equality, so someone can be pulled over if they're violating the law as it relates to the amount of tint in their car. So in 2022, that was 9 percent of stops. Whereas though in 10 2024, that number dropped to about 11 1.5 percent of the stops. 12 What are we doing 13 different? This is my last council 14 -- question for this round Council 15 President. What are we doing 16 different as it relates to traffic 17 stops? Is it how we're categorizing 18 the stop? Is it what we're stopping 19 people for? Why do we see a significant drop in that number? Is it a strategy thing? Help us understand as it relates to that particular thing, and then that'll be it for me, Council President. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you, Council, I would have to follow-up. I don't have the specific data on that, but I'll have my team, I know they're capturing that now, and be able to follow-up with you.
That's why I started with an apology because I did get that question to you and I apologize for getting it to you late. And just as a moment of personal privilege, Council President, today is my mother's birthday, so I want to say happily heavenly birthday to my mother. That's been on my mind all day today. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you.
Also, Commissioner, just in the line of questioning of Councilmember Thomas, and if you could also provide data regarding guns recovered from pulling cars over, just want to get an idea. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Guns car from --
The recovery of guns when you pull a car over, right? You know, I come from that era, you know, driving and under the seat and all that. I want to get an idea where we at in this day and time. Just, you know, because we still see the shootings of homicides going on. Like let's not act like that's not a thing. And also it's normally not with these guys using their own cars; you rent a car now. That's for the most part -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Or they steal. They -- most of them steal them, but --
Yeah, or steal them as well. So just want to get an idea of what that looks like. But we're going to wrap up for right now, and I do want to just say two officers that you have walked me through the process when I showed up on the scene in Grays Ferry where the garage fell -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
-- on the members of Iron Workers 401. It was the captain of a 17th Police District Captain McKinney and also Inspector Jamil Taylor, who's also a childhood friend. And they walked me and my team through the processes. So I just want to personally just say I thanked them, I thank them for being very thorough and very detailed on a very traumatizing experience. And they just walked us through everything and made sure we had all the details and because there was a lot of misinformation going at the same time during a very, very serious situation. So I just want to acknowledge them publicly for just being at the right place at the right time, but also being thorough in terms of their service to the city. Thank you very much. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you for that, Councilman. I mean, leadership matters. They were on the ground from the time it happened, working all the way through countless hours to make sure that went successfully. And I appreciate you bringing that up, it means a lot to them and it means a lot to us. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Council will be at recess until 2:30. (Recess.)
I feel safe with all these officers in here. I hope you-all come back during public comment, on Thursday. I appreciate the support. We're going to now resume this committee hearing, and before I have members ask questions for a brief second round, I'm going to turn the floor over to Commissioner Bethel, who will show the video that we were attempting to show earlier today. Commissioner Bethel, the floor is yours, sir. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We're going to give it one more shot. I appreciate it, Council President. As you know, I opened up the session, and wanted to share, well, part of my comments was showing a video of the work that we're doing and the investments that made by --
Commissioner, excuse me one second. Council be at ease. I just want to make sure we're showing you respect with the level of quietness as we start off the second half of the Council Committee of the Whole. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: All right. Thank you again, Council President. So as I indicated in my earlier opening, I talked about, you know, just showcasing some of the work in the men and women of the department. So I thank you and I thank this body. Allow us to put it on the record. I think we got the technical things figured out. I want to thank your entire team and have at it. ) "Elevating the work that men and women of the Philadelphia Police Department do to keep the diverse communities throughout the city safe is what matters. And to see your support of the work is paramount to our success. When residents call us about illegal dumping, loud disturbances, abandoned vehicles, open air drug activity, or chronic disorder on their blocks, they're not just asking for enforcement; they're asking for dignity and stability, and a sense of safety in their everyday lives. "Because of your support, we're able to deploy officers not just in response to emergencies, but proactively disrupting cycles in neighborhoods before they escalate into serious crime. "Technology plays a huge part in how we work to prevent crime throughout the city. We have access to 6,500 cameras, and that access makes us more effective as a department. The launch of our drone as a first-responder program deploys autonomous drones to 911 calls and critical incident arriving before our alongside ground units to deliver live situational awareness, tactical intelligence, and enhanced safety for the police officers and the public. "During the Philadelphia Marathon, a drone assisted the Police Department in locating a young man with special needs and safely reuniting him with a family member. From the time the teenager was reported missing, it took officers just under eight minutes to locate him. "The automated license reader is a controlled camera system that automatically captures images of license plates and alert investigators in real time with identifying and then recovering stolen cars. "The signal sensor sidearm ensures that the moment an officer draws their weapon, their body-worn camera is automatically activated. The in-car camera system further supports this effort. When officers respond to rapidly involving situations, these cameras capture key moments inside and around patrol vehicles. E-bikes have been a game changer for the department. They allow officers to navigate neighborhoods more effectively. They now cover more ground, navigate heavy congestion, respond faster to calls, and engage more directly with the community. We'll be adding 50 more e-bikes to our inventory that will be deployed into commercial corridors citywide. "While we were able to utilize grant money to bring these technologies to our department, the ongoing support of City Council will be instrumental in keeping these tools on Philadelphia's public safety tool belt. "The Office of Community Advocacy and Engagement puts the victims first. Being strategic in placing someone to oversee this unit that deeply understands how crime can affect individuals, families, and entire communities is important to the work. Creating this office allows victim advocates to give support, compassion, and meaningful resources to families who have experienced trauma due to crime. We believe all victims are entitled to justice, and when possible, a sense of closure. "Kensington has become a focal point in this conversation, not because it defines our city, but because it reflects some of our most complex challenges. Because of funding, we've been able to increase officer presence in targeted areas of Kensington. Not just for enforcement, but for engagement. Officers are walking in bits, building relationships with residents and business owners, and working to restore a sense of order block by block.
"All of this work and so much more culminates to what is inside this five-year strategic plan. Every page explains how we are moving beyond traditional policing to establish a holistic department-wide framework of public safety. We could not have accomplished this by ourselves. The plan was put together with several hundred voices from across the city. "When this plan is put to action, we can continue to allocate funds toward programs that make a difference, such as the Juvenile Diversion Program. This program redirects a young person away from the justice system and those cycles of arrests and incarceration and pushes them toward mentorship, education, workforce development, and community-based services, essentially giving them a second chance. )
I feel like clapping. Very well done, sir. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you, sir.
Very informative as well. I saw on the news, though, you have a behavioral health outreach team that deals with the homelessness, but it was a young lady who was newly as -- I think she's either a new officer or newly assigned. It was on the news a couple weeks ago. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We have our search unit, we have our behavioral health unit. I'm not sure if Micah is familiar with somebody being on the news recently.
They were down on the parkway, and the cameras was following them. They were doing an interview. Okay. Don't worry about it. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I apologize. I missed that.
All right. Well, it's still another kudo as well, so. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, we appreciate it.
Somebody doing something good. But I did see it and thought it was very, very interesting, because the young lady was talking about -- and her partner was talking about how people can interact with her versus her partner. Right. And she just talked about, you know, having a sense of compassion. Now she's interacting and talking to the homeless population. It was on the -- it was outside the parkway near the library, so. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, I apologize for that. I mean, we have a couple of entities that we work. We have the homeless team that works downtown with behavioral health. We have our CERT team that works with clinicians from Merakey, who work with police officers. It could have been that as well. And our service detail that works downtown as well. So I'm glad we had a great story. I apologize; I missed that one.
I'm going to be brief in the members. We also have Department of Prisons that we have to address as well. But give me an idea of the work you're continuing doing with the Gun Violence Task Force. Also, the use of the jury indictment process that I know the district attorney has been using to go after these gangs, which I think seems very effective thus far. And then just give me an idea of how you are moving forward with your crisis response team as well. I know after Walter Wallace incident, the crisis response team was developed just to make sure that when, you know, officer arrives on the scene, the person's having some level of mental health issues is being addressed properly. But my main thing is also that gun violence task force. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So the gun violence task force, which Commissioner Vanore and the team oversee -- work in collaboration with the DA's office is going extremely well. I mean, part of that work is member of his shooting investigation group. Oftentimes, as men and women from homicide are working with the DA's office as they go through the process of using the grand jury for indictments. You saw most recently, you know, the announcement of our indictments. One of the other layers of that is working with our federal partners. So, you know, our federal partners are working in collaboration with that. Their violence team, you know, is really doing a phenomenal job of supporting us as we bring all of that, you know, information together into the grand jury. As you know, the grand jury is a phenomenal place for us to bring fort the continuing behavior, the -- you know, the criminal enterprise, the drug element, and bring all those elements to bear into that one setting. So that's going extremely well, and we look forward to continuing that process. As it relates to the crisis intervention team and our CERT team, I would say, you know, coming back to the department, it was probably one of the best things I've seen being away from the department. And what the team has done, you know, I know Commissioner Kramer let that work, and that Dr. Best is here now, who oversees our behavioral work as well. You know, first starting in the -- in the -- in the 911 process, I know, you know, Councilmember Gauthier was involved in that, and, you know, I mean -- but, you know, we have, you know, almost 50,000 call jobs that have been tagged as it relates to when a call comes in, they're screening with specific screeners. If it's maybe a drug or kind of a drug issue as it relates to a behavior, a mental health issue, those jobs are screened, and then those jobs are either sent out to a crisis intervention team -- a large -- over to almost 85 percent of our department is trained in crisis intervention team. Commissioner Healy has led that work. And to -- so they give that to someone who has the expertise and the skillset. But then we also have our CERT team, they working with clinicians are deploying weekly throughout the day. I can tell you just my personal anecdotes, I can't tell you how many cops are going to air. Is there a CERT team available? Is there a CERT team available? They get it, right? They see that in what they've been doing last year alone, or they had 815 calls, 804 engagements, 74 of them juveniles. Veterans, I mean, you know, a part of that process. Engaging them with 30 engagements of that. 115 have been connected to services, 302 process. The social workers have supported that 165. So having a social worker to be able to do that, the CERT team has done about 27. I can go down the list and really rattle it out, but it is going absolutely phenomenally well. We are looking to expand as we build up our staffing, because we see the immense value that they have in being able to come into a situation. I will give you a really -- and a quick story as the Chief of school safety, they had a young child who went on the roof of a school.
I won't get into where, and I watched the officer go up the ladder to the top, but I watched his -- the code responder, go on the other side of the fence and talk the child down, right? And so that -- and when you see that in action, that was my experience. I think we're definitely set us up. Again, we thank the body for supporting that work, because again, you're seeing the benefits of when you invest in this work. Some resistance probably early in the process, but we're all in now, and it is working well.
That's what's up. I want to acknowledge the work of my colleague, Councilmember Kendra Brooks. She led that effort after the Wallace -- Walter Wallace shooting, and particularly, around the budget and making sure that we had the proper funding to support that unit. And really kind of changed how we do law enforcement as it relates to those who have mental health issues. So thank you and your team for really embracing it and continuing using it as one of the tools in the toolbox. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We even answered -- we all -- we had a comfort dog, man, we have Bailey, but one day I'll bring them to you. You would fall in love with him. But we have a comfort dog who also helps us in that space when they go into, and that's going phenomenally well.
Okay. I don't want to talk about dogs, because I lost my -- I lost mine last year, so. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Sorry for your loss.
But I get it. I might have to come talk to Bailey as well, because it is rough you-all. You-all have no 4 idea. But thank you and your team for being on the case, particularly when it comes to mental health, and also what's near and dear to me is the issue of gun violence. And so I'm going to ask members, just be direct in your questioning, be direct in your response, because obviously, we have Department of Prisons being here. So this is going to be a brief second round so we can address Department of Prisons. And so to kick us off this section, he wasn't here for the first round, is Councilmember Nicholas O'Rourke.
Thank you, Mr. President. I'll pass to the next member.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. I'll be as direct as possible. As a follow up question on human trafficking. And I wanted to know the training of our police officers on the street on the beat cop with respect to human trafficking and how we are apprehending those who are doing the trafficking, those who are consuming the trafficking, but not those who are being trafficked. Those three sets; how are we addressing that within the Police Department? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So, as you know Councilwoman, we're still moving through that process. I don't think we've -- I don't think we started the training of our men and win yet. The part of what your grant was to raise awareness was obviously a benefit for us. So I will not say we've done the training yet, we will move to that process and hopefully move that quickly before we get to the FIFA events. But that's a process. It's a challenge, and we have 5,200 men and women to get them into the training space. But part of that is the awareness. So part of that is setting up a hotline. The Special Victims is going to be setting up a hotline to make sure we do so. We have an operational plan so they know what we're doing. We also will be doing the preparation meeting, working with the FBI and others as we go through that planning process. So we're moving in that direction. But I thought about you the other day, and why -- the what you described in the work is so important. They made an arrest, I think last week of a trafficking. A young lady from, I think Louisville, Kentucky, who goes online on a chat. It's on a Reddit -- the Reddit chat -- the Reddit group was a Reddit runaway group chat. In that chat, she said that she wants to run away. An individual here in the city of Philadelphia said, "Well, okay. You can come here." Sent her a ticket. She came to this -- came here, you know, part of that was engaged in sexual activity and taken pictures with her. Finally, after a period of time when she realized she was in a trap, she called, I think a relative who ultimately called police. And Frank and the team and Special Victims was able to make the arrest. And at that moment when I was reading that white paper, I said, you absolutely highlighted why this work is so important and why we need to make sure we're engaged. It just was that simple and that easy to be able to draw that young lady from Kentucky here to the city of Philadelphia with a -- by just giving her a ticket and a plane ride here. And so we do have some things to talk about, as you -- we've opened up the awareness campaign, the things that you've brought to bear the hotline that we will be doing that with our men and women. I won't say ask for grace, because time is moving, but we have a lot of things happening at the same time in trying to make sure that minimally our men and women know what to do when they're in that scenario: To be able to call Special Victims through the hotline at the plan that we have, the response team that we're going to have for the FIFA activity. But I think your work and our work has to -- will continue well beyond this. Because we, as you know, we're still in the infancy stages of really, really understanding how to dismantle this issue. But I thought about you in that white paper, and I appreciate the effort you're putting into this work.
And thank you for that. And you do get grace because we've embarking on this, but not much longer because we need to actually see a plan of action. But we also will be talking to the DA about what they're doing with who you are arresting in terms of prosecutions, and that whole loop. So I thank you for the work, I thank your officers for understanding this should be a priority, and to get the training. Because this also directly -- the training piece is really important, including, I wanted to ask about, you know, FPFAs and how when officers approach a domestic violence situation, how well they're trained to understand what is going on and how they can proceed. Because a lot of times the anecdotally, we hear, people just, you know, officer goes, oh, no 10 problem, and they leave. But if they were trained to really understand what is the dynamic that is going on, they might not have left, and that might not have resulted in somebody get either severely beaten or killed. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Right. Fully understood.
So I just want to know that piece as well. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. And a nugget to that when you talk about training, Dr. Murray is here, who joined my team. For -- Dr. Murray joined our team to take over our training, professional development training at the academy, so we split our academy. And part of what Dr. Murray, she comes from 30 years of being a principal and a school leader, moving into public practice. And Amazon helped create their leadership, able to lure her into our field of work. And so one of the things she's working on, the learning management system. Because with these trainings, like we can use, you know, that model to be able to train our folks more effectively. And we're on that -- because we have a city model, we're going to be able to adjoin to the model, they have the city, and build out our structure so we can train our men more efficiently and more effectively. We're trying to bring them into our classroom, so thank you for that.
Thank you, Council President, and thank you commissioner for being so proactive. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
And being willing to try new things. I appreciate that. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, then Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, then Councilmember Kendra Brooks.
Very quickly, I just have one question. And that is about the use of ShotSpotter. I know that we've responded to some violent crime and shootings in the district and in the city, and so I'm curious. I know that the city of Camden was able to significantly reduce their gun violence by using ShotSpotter. Do we use ShotSpotter? How effective is it? What is the impact on response, and if we don't, why? And what are some of the controversies around it? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, I -- ShotSpotter, I mean, it's great, but I don't sometimes think as effective as indicated. I mean, we've done the research, so, you know, in part of what you see. So, for example, PHA has ShotSpotter. We don't have ShotSpotter. I talked about a model we have, and it's in the 22nd District. And that day it had 771 jobs, where it came into our radio that ShotSpotter was deployed since February -- I mean, May 1st, 2025, just under a little of a year. In of those occurrences, where it was confirmed shooting incident, so we weren't able to capture anybody. But that's three percent rate with that. So again, we have what's called acoustics gunshot detection system that we have deployed. That system, we have 436 activations and 432 is estimated over last year. And again, it's still really inconclusive as to whether this tool is really just another tool in the toolbox, but definitely not a primary toolbox. I mean, we are getting some detections, we're seeing that at absolutely, but the confirmed shootings and the found shootings and getting us on location, we're not seeing a significant increase in that. And so again, I'm not parsing it. I don't see that as a primary tool for us. We're far quicker to get a call from the neighborhood and somebody on the block than the ShotSpotter, which is a great tool, but I think something in the toolkit, but definitely not a primary tool.
Thank you. Do we use AI in any type of crime-fighting, public safety tactics, just in general? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I mean, I think when you go across the technology, AI is literally through everything now. So if my team was here from -- you know, still here from the drones, you know, the AI technology is allowing the drones to not hit a wall. You know what I mean? So these -- that my drones will not run into a building because it has technology in it to prevent it from happening.
Do our drones have heat-seeking capability? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, it has a -- it has infrared -- not heat seeking, but infrared capability. So we can -- when in -- and during the day or night, but easily at night, it can open up its flare to see if a body -- that video you saw was during the day, and you could still -- it still was able to show the, you know, the person's body. And we are going to be moving shortly, I think I shared before, translation with our body- worn camera. So our body-worn cameras has the capacity to translate 120 languages. We will be launching that very shortly in our body-worn cameras. So an officer, when he arrives and someone speaking a different language, was able to hit the button, listen to that language, and then when he speaks, it will speak back to them in that language. That, again, is AI technology, transcribing of our body-worn cameras. Again, we won't be able to use that for court purposes, because we have to have that validated, but it does not require, so AI is absolutely woven into all of the technology. LPR readers, the license plate readers, the AI is reading the tag and matching that up into the system. But that technology is very much rooted in the work that's underway. But what we do not do, and I know the AI conversation is using that generative, you know, we putting our information in to build more information, really using it as part of what is built into the model that we're purchasing.
Thank you very much. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, then Councilmember Kendra Brooks.
Thank you, Council President. Commissioner, I thought I heard in your testimony that the number of youth going into the juvenile justice system had gone from 1,600 to 70. So first, can you confirm those numbers? And then can you talk about the elements of your juvenile justice diversion approach that has led to such a drop? And can you also tell us what's next for diversion? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: All right. I did have juvenile on my cheat sheet, but I'm not finding it. So I'll talk through, and John -- as John walks through some of the -- pulls up some of the data. So when I talk about -- I think when you're talking about the school diversion, or?
I believe you quoted some numbers when you were giving your initial testimony. I thought you said that the number of juveniles going into the system had gone from like 1,600 down to 70. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Oh, yes.
And I took that to mean inclusive of every juvenile diversion program that we have. But if you can break that down somewhat. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. Yeah. So what I -- what I -- what I referenced is -- and my journey in 2013 when I was here as a deputy commissioner in 2014, and then I retired in 16, was around kids being a lockup in school district, and in the juvenile justice system. And in 2014, I had traveled around the country and became very much aware of the number of kids of color being put into the criminal justice system. Part of a national model that asked us this question, how are you going to change the number of Black boys and girls going into the system and Latino boys and girls, if the police kept locking up 100 percent of them. And so that journey would take me to a school district. As part of my work, I here as a deputy, looked at the school district where we had 1,600 children being arrested, in the school district every year. And it was a tragedy. And I tell people -- I sit down, and President Johnson knows my story. I sat down, looked at a piece of paper, and I said, "Oh, my God." You know, and it's kept me, a kid who graduated from John Bartram in school who saved my life. How the hell did we turn into a place where we're now locking up children? And so that would embark on my journey to reduce the number of kids being locked up in the school district in the city of Philadelphia. And so we would do a school diversion program. The diversion program, the Department of Human Services, wherever they are, I love them, I appreciate them. I did not have any place to move young people to. And DHS would start in 2014 and been with us for 12 years now, using their CUAs to be able to divert young people to different programming. And so we would create a school diversion program, but I also became very much trauma informed. I'm a kid who grew up in the neighborhood, pulled up by your bootstraps, who the hell cares about trauma? And I said, well, how's that possible when you got a 10-year-old child putting him in a cell block for six hours, and what was the impact on that? And so we would go about --
I remember that cheese sandwich. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah.
That cool tea. I think about it today as Council President, but go ahead, sir. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And, you know, I know we're talking about it. I put my daughter through the arrest process. I had my daughter arrested, ladies and gentlemen, on a Saturday morning and walked her through the process. And it was there when it says what I -- and we were just filming it. Because I wanted people to know what it was like. Putting her through that process, I said to myself, "I would never let anybody do this to my daughter. And why am I allowing it to happen to others?" And so that would change the viewpoint. It's okay when it's happening to somebody else's. And so today after a great work, Dr. Goldstein from Drexel University and others helped us through this process. I mean, I'm proud to say that we had 70 young people who were arrested last year, and I'm proud of that, don't get me wrong. But from a system that used to do 1,600, today we're at 38. Today we're at 38 kids from a system that did 1,600. We've now expanded that into -- I came back and I drove right back into my juvenile work. We now have a three-tier process where we're diverting young people across the city of Philadelphia. I mean, those numbers over here, I can provide them to you, but we are diverting young people and we're using age appropriate as well. So --
And what's next for that work? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: What's it? Excuse me.
What's on the horizon for that work? What's next? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: For that work, that is our process now. That is our next, right now. We have a three-tier process, where we're diverting young people for a variety of simple assault. I mean, well, that's a little different category: retail theft. Most of our kids are being diverted today in the community of retail theft. We also took an age appropriate. If a 10-year-old child shows up in a stolen car, something's wrong.
Yeah. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And it sure is not a criminal justice issue that a 10-year-old child or 11-year-old child. So we move to an age-appropriate process too, so we get a 10-year-old or 11-year-old child, we're diverting that child into the criminal justice -- I mean, into a diversionary model that makes that very effective for him. And we do that with by Juvenile Assessment Center. The JAC has been a great partner in that work. I see my partner leaning forward as his team, the JAC, comes under his charge, and we support that as we go through our work.
Thank you so much, and congrats on that success. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
And I just want to acknowledge that when I worked with then Commissioner Bethel in the Point Breeze Area of South Philadelphia, and I know there was a time period where we just had significant gun violence, like every single day we were on the ground, you, myself, Wally Smith, right, and other community activists trying to get a grapple on this. And I remember you taking one of the young men under your wing and being a mentor. Right. And that exemplifies your character beyond your position. Because you got your own children to take care of. You did not have to take that young man under your wing and try to give him some guidance. I remember also working with then Captain Commissioner Ross, and went out Tasker, and knocked on a young man door. You got a decision you wanted to make, right? Because these guys kept shooting back and forth Wilson and Tasker Park. And so we recognize that in the context of the work that you-all are doing, really putting your heart on the line and trying to get to some of these young people beyond just the typical, you know, we can just lock them up, and it -- that -- to me, that's shifting the paradigm in how we address law enforcement. But it's also exemplifies your character in terms of the mission as well. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I know you want to wrap it up, but I can't tell you, when I looked at the sheet before we locked up -- before we start our diversion, and the thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of children we had locked up, and where they were going. And we knew that 50 percent of them would stay in the criminal justice system. And what were we doing, right? And so that realization for me remains in my heart and my mind today, because I could have been any one of them, fate and circumstances. I didn't get caught, ladies and gentlemen. I just didn't get caught. Right? And look where I'm at today. I am leading the -- one of the fourth largest police departments in America. And so those young people are out there, and you know, your -- I know your story as well, my friend.
Uh-huh. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And so that's where we're going to continue to be that space. That is my legacy work. And, you know, Commissioner Healy's over there, he is been my ride or die guy through this process of writing all my MOUs and agreements. But, you know, we've been at this road and it will be forever be the most valuable thing I've ever done, no matter what you hear me say or hear you say what I do, that is the most telling thing for me in my lifetime, is to be able to change the trajectory of young people's lives.
Thank you very much. We have Councilmember Brooks, and then we'll wrap up with Councilmember Phillips and bring up prisons.
Thank you so much. I have some follow up questions I didn't get to ask yesterday. And it's about a U Visa is an important visa that set aside victims of certain crimes who have suffered abuse and are helpful to law enforcement. We have heard that the city is denying far more U Visa applications than they were previously denying many victims chances at legal residency. Let me just ask all these questions, because they're all related to our ICE Out legislation. In what situations is a U Visa request denied? Does the city deny U Visa applications on the ground that the person has an immigration violation? Chicago has a UNT Visa Police directive spelling out the U Visa approved process. Does Philadelphia have a similar police directive? And my next round of questions is related to the license plate readers that you showed up here. How many functioning license plates readers does the department have? How does the department manage the data that is collected from the LPRs? How long is the data kept, and who keeps it, and who has access to it? And can outside law enforcement departments such as ICE access LPR data? And if so, could the Police Department let ICE access the LPR data? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So I think I'll have to follow up on some of those questions. I don't think I captured all of it, Councilwoman. One other thing I can tell you that over the last five-years, we received 1,054 total received UVA U Visas, 703 of those were approved, and 342 of those were denied. I can get you more detail as to what we resulted in that denial. 2026 alone, we've had 60 applications. 32 of those were approved, 28 were denied. So that's a 53 percent approval rating in that regard.
And do we have like a directive that spells out the distribution of the UT Visa? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes. I'm talking -- Commissioner Healy, just for the purpose of time, we can give you. But he said we do have a policy that outlines. SOP, Standard Operating Procedure. So it's not a directive; it's an internal SOP.
Okay. And the other one around, the license plates, how many do we have in the city? How's that based for -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So we have our -- I think we have over -- so -- no, I'm talking about total. So total number of -- so one of the things that we have that this body purchases -- purchased over, I believe, 100 of those devices. However, when we installed the license, the in-car cameras, those in-car cameras have license plate readers attached to them. So that was able to be a multiplier of our cameras now. And we are able to capture that in our internal system. That information also goes through our Axon and our evidence.com to be able to capture, obviously, if we need it for evidentiary purposes. That is tracking a lot of activity, not just around whenever the police officer turns on his or her overhead lights, the interior camera, when they have somebody in the back of the car to make sure that we can see that full circle behind them. They have the -- they have the ability to see inside the car. I can follow up with you as to how many. It's quite -- it's a lot of reading, you know, quite a bit of reading as it relates to that. Your question was -- I may have been missing your final question in that regard.
We have missed how long -- COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, we don't share -- we definitely don't share that with ICE. That -- that's the -- we don't share that data with ICE, as it relates to our license plate reader. They can't come to us and ask us if we saw a plate or something and put that in a reader. That's not what -- that's not what we do.
Okay. Can we get that in writing? Like who has access and how is that information shared? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Right now, we -- with the license plate reader, we minimize it. It can open up to a variety of things. We keep it in a very finite categories, recovery -- vehicle recoveries. So stolen autos are going into the system. Things that may be a form an investigator process. There was a shooting, or some other high level, the investigators have access to that part of their investigative process. And so we were very, very narrow in the use of those. And because of that -- and stolen autos, but we -- again, we have a very strong policy around. So where we -- stolen autos, missing purses, and then alerts that we put into the system. But much of that work is being done by the detectives when we are solving cases and going after individuals.
Thank you so much. And I just want to add, it's been much easier working with you guys around this ICE data. I want to just thank you for all the cooperation and the support you gave us in trying to get to a answer around the legislation that we were able to pass out a committee yesterday. And I just want to say thank you. I want to thank the Police Department for being cooperative and kind of collaborative in moving it forward. I just want to let you know I appreciate that. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And I have to carry it over to Commissioner Healy as an attorney and everything else --
Yes. Healy, he's been amazing. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: He's just -- he's been very formidable in that space and I appreciate his work.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Point of information. I just wanted to make sure I, again, reiterated that we just introduced to bill about the UNT visa around streamlining the process. We've been in conversation with the Police Department about this already. This is about designating how much time it takes to turn these around, and to make sure that those who are applying understand why they were denied. So there was a few provisions in that that just got introduced, so that would clarify the process much more. I just wanted to make sure everybody knew about that. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you very much. And last but not least briefly, Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips, and we will move on to the Prisons. The floor is yours, sir.
Thank you, Council President. I just want to also reiterate that I believe that the Police Department is one of the top two departments in the city of Philadelphia right now. And I want to commend you all for your work. I just want to just clarify from earlier, because I'm going to be really brief. I was asking, I am profoundly grateful for what Town Watch Services does in our city of Philadelphia, but I'm asking upon you and your leadership, Director Geer, that you work with Anthony Murphy to identify neighborhoods in our district and districts across the city, where we're going to do a strategic plan and say they're going to organize the town watch. They're not going to ask us what -- where -- you know, to organize it. They're going to organize it and say, Hey, can you help market it? We're identifying this neighborhood, we're going to do the town watch there, training there, can you just help market it? We're going to market it too and hand out flyers. That's all I was just trying to say in that regard. And then I just had one last question: public access to information, there's $25 million in funding that is -- that is given to grantees, organizations for office violence prevention. On the website currently right now, there's a list of names of individuals and they grant the addresses, but it does not say how much funding they're getting. There's not a record, there's not like at a nonprofit that I used to work with or a lot of nonprofits annual report of what they've done in neighborhoods. And I would just like for that to be something that going forward that we see in terms of public access information. And then also last question -- I'm sorry. The last question is, what is your standard operating procedure when working with Council offices when there is a victim circumstance or homicide?
Great, great questions, Councilmember. The information, the more robust information, rather, on the grantees can be found on Philly Stat 360's webpage. There is information on our webpage, Office of Public Safety, but as you say, it is just the list. That's in Philly Stat 360. I believe you go to Public Safety tab, and then there should be a Grants tab after that. And with respect to the second part of your question, which now I'm just blanking on -- oh, I'm sorry, contact. We do have a rapid response standard operating procedure. Based upon our conversation this morning, it would make a lot of sense if we updated that standing operating procedure to make sure that there is explicitly outreach in certain incidences. As of now, as some of the council members will know, there are events that occur that we we're reaching out to council members. We're doing stuff behind the scenes; we're doing everything that I described. And as you as you might suggest, again, having a standard operating procedure where we're now thinking about, okay, these are the types of cases where we for sure going to check that box, makes sense.
Thank you so much, Council President, and we'll continue to have this conversation. Thanks a lot, Director Geer.
Thank you. Member Brooks, your light is on. Okay. No question? Okay. As there are no more questions from members of the committee, I want to thank you all for your testimony and for indulging us today. Thank you very much. Continue to keep up the good work.
Thank you. Ms. Loughead, can you please call the next panel?
Michael Resnick, Commissioner for Philadelphia Department of Prisons.
Good afternoon, everyone. COUNCILMEMBERS: Good afternoon.
I want to take a moment, first and foremost to thank all of you for your service to Philadelphia Prisons. I've had the opportunity to work with Mike Resnick over a significant period of time serving in his body, but to you and your whole staff, Michael, just thank you for all the things that you do and your team do on State Road. I just wanted to personally say that personally. I also recognize that although we are public servants, and we do this work, we know the work that all of you do is significant only for the simple fact that it is not guaranteed that you come back home from your call of duty. It is never guaranteed. On any given day, anything can actually happen and you may not return back to your family. So I just want to start off by just saying thank you for your service and thank you for your dedication. And with that being said, just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Certainly. And thank you for that acknowledgement, Council President. I'm Michael Resnick. I am the commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. And if you'll indulge me for a moment, Council President, I would like to go off script for a minute to discuss some matters that I think are important that this Council hear about, and that the public hears about. As you are aware, we are under court oversight in the Remick federal litigation, and we get monitored by a team of monitors, and they file reports twice a year. And we've just received the eighth monitoring report. And I want to share some of the highlights from that report as they demonstrate PDPs positive improvement during the mayor's tenure. These are all direct quotes from the monitors from the report. Based on compliance findings, PDP achieved more progress in this reporting period than it has in any previous reporting period since monitoring commenced. PDP has now achieved substantial compliance with seven of substantive provisions, 9 and with 21 of 37 sub provisions. 10 For the first time, PDP has achieved 11 at least partial compliance for 12 every sub provision. In 2025, PDP 13 increased security staffing by more 14 than 60 percent, from 241 new 15 officers in 2024 to 395 in 2025. 16 PDP'S employee retention 17 rates have continued to improve in 18 this reporting period. Of the 395 new personnel hired in 2025, 362 remain employed as of December 30th, 2025. This represents an exceptional 92 percent first-year retention rate and an improvement from the 74 percent first-year retention rate for the period January to December 2024. PDP has also achieved substantial compliance with Substantive Provision No. 5, healthcare. PDPs General Medical and Specialty Care appointment backlog has been reduced from 1,587 backlog appointments in 2022 to 245 backlog appointments as of December 31st, 2025. And as we're sitting here in April 2026, I'm happy to say we have no medical backlog. Given that many jails across the country continue to experience both unprecedented staffing crisis and delayed medical and mental health healthcare, defendant's progress in these areas is commendable. PDP has continued to exceed data production requirements pursuant to the sanctions order as part of the population reduction initiatives that reduce PDPs average daily population from 4,545 in the second half of 2024 to 3,526 in the second half of 2025. And the week of Easter, a couple weeks ago, we had a 3,281-population rate. PDP is now providing timely and adequate medical and mental health care pursuant to the agreement and is making notable progress with requirements for outer cell time and other substantive provisions. PDP has now distributed more than 3,000 tablets to eligible class members. During site visits in February, 2026, class members offered positive feedback about applications and materials.
Class members confirmed that they're receiving benefits of increased contact with loved ones through tablet calling, increase access to legal research, books and other reading material, and access to self-guided educational, therapeutic, and spiritual applications. PDP procured and issued tablets quickly and efficiently for a large jail system, and should be commended for a successful initiative. Monitoring of this sub provision is therefore discontinued. Over the past year, PDP has initiated dramatic reform at -- of RTS operations. PDP is developing an entirely new program model that increases opportunities for educational and rehabilitative program, vocational training, and reentry services. PDPs reentry efforts are impressive achievements in a short timeframe. RTS has demonstrated exceptional skill, galvanizing support for reentry services and the participation of other city departments and numerous community partners. In this reporting period, PDP has shown improvement across virtually every substantive provision of the agreement. This improvement reflects commitment and sustained effort by PDP leadership and staff. And I just want to say that none of this progress could have been made without the budget this Council approved, the tremendous -- tremendous support that we get from the mayor and her administration, the managing director's office, the Law Department, my colleagues across city government, my executive staff sitting here with me, and most importantly, the unsung men and women who work at the Philadelphia Department of Corrections and make this progress possible. So the mission of the Philadelphia Department of Prisons is to provide a secure correctional environment to detain people accused, or convicted of illegal acts, and prepare them for reentry into society in a clean, lawful, humane and safe environment. PDP offers a wide variety of programming, including but not limited to job training, educational services, parenting classes, substance abuse services, medical services, behavioral health -- behavioral health therapy, individual counseling, and group therapy. PDP helps advance the mayor's goal of building mutual trust and safety in the city neighborhoods by ensuring that returning citizens have access to resources to support their successful reentry to their communities. The Philadelphia Department of Prisons operates five facilities: The Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, the Detention Center, and the Prison Health Services wing, the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center, MOD 3, where we house certified juveniles, and the Riverside Correctional Facility. Our plans for 2027: The PDP will continue to increase our staffing and retention to improve the security of our facilities, as well as work with our partners in the Office of Safe Neighborhoods to coordinate violence reduction programs behind the walls. We will continue to provide increased out-of-cell time to enable the population to receive more services and programming, and PDP delivers -- delivery of such services and programming includes medical and mental health care, substance use disorder treatment, educational and literacy programs for all inmates, but especially vulnerable and underserved individuals during incarceration in preparation for their release.
Our plan for 2027 and beyond remains broad based and consider most areas throughout the Philadelphia Department of Prisons and support our primary goal, which include continue recruitment and hiring and our promotional efforts, continue partnership with our criminal justice partners to achieve the goal of lowering the jail population, continue technological use of the medical monitoring devices, specifically within the first five days of admission, which allows medical staff and security to be alerted when newly admitted individuals who are medically vulnerable and who are going through severe withdrawal start to experience warning signs of medical emergencies, as is an aside, we had an issue last night at the Curran- Fromhold Facility on intake housing, an inmate's medical monitor went off. Staff and medical responded, that individual was treated for a rapid heart and -- rapid heart rate and was sent out to hospital. Continue to provide medication for opioid use disorder, and all substance use disorder. Continue to expand services of PDP Reentry Center, which opened in September 2025 and already demonstrates strong impact by serving central -- by serving as a centralized hub for individuals returning to Philadelphia from incarceration on State Road. The Reentry Center offers a range of coordinated services, including reentry planning, workforce development, job readiness, housing navigation, access to identification and public benefits, food and basic need support, behavioral health and substance use referrals and more. And to continue improving programs and services offered to the incarcerated population by the RTS division, which manages discharge planning, education counseling, vocational skills, and reentry services. That concludes my testimony and my commercial. And I'm available for questioning.
Thank you very much. I just want to have a question around reentry. Only 30 percent of sentence individuals are commonly participating in educational or vocational programs with a 60 percent assignment target for medium close custody inmates. What are the specific barriers preventing higher enrollment? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Particular the barriers for -- or preventing higher-custody level individuals from engaging in the vocational services is a simple matter of security, councilmen. So if we have to move individuals to outside areas, we're trying to develop the skill center, which is a facility up on our campus. And in order to move people out of their facility and take them to their skill center, there needs to be adequate levels of security, not only for them to be transported there while they're there and return to their home facility. But under the leadership of Deputy Commissioner Jaco with Assistant Deputy Commissioner Archer and Assistant Deputy Commissioner Dr. Baker, we're -- as I said it earlier, we're taking a holistic look at how we provide services, and we are looking at reorganizing the way we provide those services to include more individuals in our population.
What new strategies, tactics, security protocols, have been implemented since some time ago? I know some individuals escaped from State Road and was out on the run for a significant period of time. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Sure. Number one, councilman, we just have more people. So we have more staff than any time in the past. So there are no units that are not manned by a correctional officer. Through the day and during the night. We don't have a situation where one officer is covering two or three housing areas. So we have staff assigned to every single housing area. The facility -- go ahead. The facility where that incident occurred, we renovated the exterior and we put no climb fencing on all of those yards to make it, I won't say impossible, but virtually impossible for anybody to scale that fence again. We have drones that are tethered to our facilities that have a bird's eye view all around our campus. They do have alerts if there's a heat signature that goes within a no-go zone, we're alerted to that. We will be developing with our partners at OIT, a command center where all of our cameras will be integrated into one location. We have developed a security and intelligence unit, which is staffed by experienced security captains. They try to connect individuals in the facilities who are aligned or are warring factions, because what happens out on the street just translates into the facilities on state road, so they're trying to interdict contraband, they're trying to reduce the violence. As I mentioned earlier, we work with our partners in the Office of Public Safety, Safe Neighborhoods, to bring those credible messengers that do the outreach on the streets to come behind the walls and work with our population to reduce the violence inside. We've also expanded our canine force. We've utilized Tech 84 body scanners to prevent the introduction of any dangerous substances or contraband. So there's a -- there's a -- oh, and we also are integrating an RFID system. So every inmate has an armband with an RFID chip in it. And all the officers use props. All the officers use a Spartan device. So nobody goes anywhere or moves anywhere without the officer tapping the RFID band, and then sending that inmate somewhere. And when they get to where they're going, they're received. So we have a constant count and we constantly know where everybody is.
Okay. And last, have you changed the release time, where there was an incident where a young man was like -- was released in the middle of the night. And within 15, minutes on 17 the site was murdered, right? And 18 so he left in the middle of the 19 nighttime, whoever he had beef with 20 decided to show up. And probably was told that he was coming home. And it kind of -- you kind of segue into this question based upon your saying whatever goes on the streets also goes on behind State Road, which I'm very familiar with. What's the new protocol since that time? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: So legally, councilman, when someone's bail is paid, and they are no -- we are no longer capable of holding them and detaining them, we are obligated to release them from our custody.
Okay. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: We do do releases throughout the night, except for the females. And we contracted with a bus service. So we have a bus that sits on our campus and people who are discharged after -- what is the time? 9:00 o'clock, they can go over to the driveway by the house of correction and get on the bus and be taken to specific designated drop off points.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Nicholas O'Rourke, then Councilman Dr. Nina Ahmad. Member Brooks, your light was on. Is it still on?
Okay. All right. Councilmember Nicholas O'Rourke.
Thank you, Mr. President. And good afternoon. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: You passed last time, Council.
Indeed, indeed, indeed, indeed, indeed. I'm going to go ahead and give you a few, though. But I want to begin first by commending you. So much work has been done, and I think folks have been, you know, willing to say it, but I think we ought to pause sometimes and really sit in our wins. You have done an incredible -- a yeoman's job at -- at reducing the prison population. And I think, and if there were more people in this room, I'd ask everybody to give you a round of applause for that work. And I want to thank you for that work to make that happen. And you've kept it down, which is something also to be commended. Historic lows that we are seeing. And in my decarceral mind and all of that, it's really is a bright day to see this happen. It's a testament to you and your team's work for what you've been able to do here before. So thank you. To that end, though, what is the current population versus designed capacity, and how has the reduction in the population actually impacted conditions? I know that we've talked a bit about it, but if you could just speak to it on the record specifically like outdoor time and other programming that's related to outdoor time. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Sure. So we are at 33 -- if I'm reading this right, 3,323 today. We have 3,147 in population on State Road. The additional are individuals who are out of our custody, but still under our jurisdiction. So 3,147 individuals are on State Road today. With respect to design capacity, I don't want to get into what I think the design capacity is, but I think we all can remember a time back when we had close to 10,000 people. So maybe the jails weren't designed to hold 10,000 people, but they held 10,000 people, almost. So we are under our rated capacity, is what I would say. We have certain housing areas that are not populated, we have certain areas over at the detention center that we're just not using any longer. So I think the fact that we have 3,147 in population, and we have 400-ish new correctional staff, more than we had last year, I think it's obvious, and these were the things that I told the mayor when I -- when she and I met to discuss this position that we need to lower the population, and we need to increase our staffing numbers. And we've been able to accomplish those two things. So I think the fact that we have less people and population and more staff, just shows that more inmates or the population is out, they are out more for the better part of the day. They get to go to their programs; they get to go to their visits. They -- now that they have tablets, they're able to do video visitations with their family members. They're able to access entertainment and education materials on those tablets. They're able to go to the rec yards. We don't let them to go outside, but there are rec yards. At the detention center, there's outdoor rec because it's just a lower custody level.
Got you. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: And those inmates go to the gym, what is it, two hours, and then outdoor rec if weather permits for two hours.
Okay. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: So we are very, very close to what I would call back-to-normal operations.
Very, very close to what we would call back-to-normal operations. That's really good news. And again, I just want to commend you for the work that you've done on that. God, albeit that bell came quick. Okay. Let me get at least one more in and hopefully I can get another round. As far as I understand, the medical bracelet initiative has been reported as being successful for helping staff respond to health crises in real time. What's been your assessment of the initiative and what plans do you have after this particular pilot? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: So this is the ForeSight Medical Monitor. And every inmate that comes in to receiving in CFCF or females over PICC, they're explained what this is and what the purpose is. It's put on, it's secured. They wear it for five to six days. And if there is a change in vital signs that this monitor detects, it will alert on the unit and unit control, and in the medical area. And the only person who can turn off the alert is a nurse. So somebody's job is to respond to the alerts. And we do intake about 40-ish people every single day. You know, so it's quite a number of individuals who are on active monitoring throughout our system. If the band loses contact, it will go off. If an individual is exercising and their heart rate goes up, it'll go off. But this has the capability of learning what an individual's base vital signs are. So exercise will be learned, right? If an individual is in distress, an alert will go off, people will respond: security staff and medical staff. If there is an emergency, they will be attended to. Like the emergency that happened last night, an inmate's band went off, it alerted, he was having irregular heart rate, staff responded. He was, I believe, from the flash report, he was sent out to the hospital to be evaluated. So we've had several incidences where people were treated at the medical unit in the jail and returned to their housing unit. We've had several incidences, like last night's where the individual had to go to the hospital. We've had several incidents where people were admitted to the hospital in ICU. So one person's life saved, I think is worth the initiative and the process.
Perhaps the -- it sounds like there's data being collected with this. And I -- the -- I mean, probably, maybe not data that everyone's interested in, but could be. And I'm curious then about who actually manages that. Like who has access to the data that is in those? And I guess, there's a more structural question around what is the general like data privacy management between PDP and the vendor? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: So the data -- the data collected from these devices is medical. So it goes into our medical record, our electronic medical record for the inmates. Our medical provider can pull de-identified information in terms of the number of alerts that went off, the type of alert that went off, and what was the outcome of those alerts.
Okay. All right. The bell rang twice. I'm taxing it. So I'll let you have that back, Mr. President. Thank you for your time, sir.
Thank you very much, sir. Councilmember Kendra Brooks and Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you so much. I -- before I get into my questions, they're mainly about -- the first group of questions are about ICE. I just want to thank you guys again for experience that we had down at the Orchid and the farm with last spring. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Yeah, last spring.
It was one of my best experiences visiting the prison system and just knowing that we have that, and I still have the pictures of you guys running around with the chickens. So I'm going to forever remember that. I saw you guys in uniform today; that's a long way from chasing chickens. But thank you for those experiences that you're able to offer the inmates up at the prison system. And the next experience I had that was similar to that when I went to go visit the women at Muncy, and some of the programs they had there. So it's really good to see when programs are coming together and working for the people. So my questions around ICE. So in 2017, the Philadelphia Department of the Prisons implemented a new protocol providing that ICE will be given access to interview an inmate in one of the detention facilities if the inmate consents in writing to that interview. And to implement this, the Department of Prisons created a consent form to be given to any inmate that ICE wants to interview. So I'm going to have a series of questions. So it is: How many inmates have signed this consent form since 2025? What types of explanations are inmates given about this consent form? Is it the policy for each inmate to have meaningful access to a lawyer before signing to explain the potential consequences of signing a form? And what languages is this form in an explanation provided in? And in general, in what situation does the prison employee notify ICE or federal authorities about an individual that has interacted -- that they have interacted with, and when they do not? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: I will answer your last question first, Councilman. We do not interact with ICE. We do not notify ICE of anybody who is in our custody that they may be interested in. What we do is comply with the law as announced by the Third Circuit. If ICE issues a detainer and a valid judicial warrant signed by a judge, we will detain that individual. If we just get an ICE detainer with no judicial warrant, we will not hold that individual beyond their release date.
So the information they shared about a consent form is all not true? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Well, there is a consent form, but I, you know, 2020? July 2020 was the last time this occurred where someone was asked to consent to speak to ICE. So we haven't done that in six years.
Thank you. Thank you. And my next question is about how many people currently incarcerated require accommodations for disabilities and what is the breakdown for intellectual disabilities and for physical disabilities? And what sort of accommodations are most typically -- do you most typically see? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: So unfortunately, our director of medical operations is not -- was not able to be here with us today. I know that we do follow and are obliged to follow the Americans with Disability Act. I can get you specifics. I just don't have it available to me.
Okay. We'll send these over in writing. I kind of wish we did to you. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Okay.
Because I knew I would have to rush through. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Very good.
And the other -- the last group around family visits, how many in-person visits occur weekly, and are there barriers that are -- that you are aware of that adversely impact visiting, like transportation scheduling or staffing? How many spots are there each day for people to have in-person visits? How does this compare to pre-COVID levels, and are you planning on expanding in-person visits back to anywhere near pre-COVID protocols? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: So as you're aware, Councilman, our facilities are not the easiest to access from most parts of the city. That's one of the reasons why we expanded the tablet program, because individuals can visit with family members via the tablet. They can have that interaction, they can communicate, they can see each other. The hope is the more individuals will stay in contact with their family members through the tablet without having people trek all the way up to the -- to the facilities. I mean, I see women coming up to the facility carrying small children with them, and I can imagine the burden that that is to get yourself up to CFCF or one of our facilities and try to visit. So I think -- and it's my hope that more individuals will take advantage of the tablets. But I think, I don't know if Deputy Commissioner Beaufort can talk about the numbers we have available in the visiting room.
So Xavier Beaufort, First Deputy Commissioner. Roughly during the week, it's over 175 visits across all facilities. Only on the weekend, our seven youthful offenders, they're the only ones that get -- that gets visits on the weekend, because they're in school during the week. So what we did, we came up -- when COVID hit, we came up with an appointment, once we started allowing visits again. So now, everyone has to go on our system and make an appointment.
That allowed us to get out of the first come first serve basis and to strategically seek people in the visit. So each visiting room holds. CFCF holds the most, but each of the visiting rooms at one time hold a little over 30 people per.
Okay. So are you -- do you think that the visitation numbers will increase similar to what it was pre-COVID, or people are just taking advantage more of the virtual opportunities that you are offering now?
We have a lot less inmates than we had pre-COVID, so I don't think we'll see pre-COVID numbers just because the numbers of inmates aren't there. And again, like I said, we're not a very easy place to get to from most parts of the city, so I think more people would opt for a virtual visit than to come all the way up to the facilities.
Thank you very much. Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon and -- COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Good afternoon.
-- congratulations to you Commissioner Resnick and your entire team. You know, the treatment of those incarcerated directly reflects a society's civilization, ethics and humanity, and we are getting there. So I'm really, really pleased. I had two specific questions. One, and also congratulations on your ongoing work with the Food Trust. I wanted to know, can you give us an update as to how that work is happening in that partnership? Nutrition is critical for all of us, including those who are incarcerated. So if you could comment on that, and then I have one more question. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Certainly. So as you're probably aware, the Food Trust comes up and they provide education to the inmate population on good, healthy food choices and nutrition. They continue to do that work. Prior to my arrival, they had been engaged in a data-gathering undertaking that was ultimately going to result in a -- in a presentation in a report. I found out about it sort of roundabout. I wasn't aware that they were doing that work specifically. And when I got a chance to see the report, I was a little concerned because the report was reflective of data they were collecting in 2023 and before. So it did not match our current operations. And I am -- I'm aware that our department is not perfect. We still have some work to do. We have made great progress and great strides. And one of the first things I had requested from our contract manager, Ms. Snyder, who's here, when our food contract went out for RFP, I wanted to make sure that we were able to provide an upgraded level of offerings, an upgraded menu. Because we do hear complaints from the population, we hear complaints from Council, we hear complaints from the advocates. A lot of what we're able to offer, we are limited because of our food production plant. We have a cooking chill plant. It's in CFCF, that plant makes all the meals for the entire system. It's distributed to the individual jails, and thawed, and then served. So what that plant can manufacture and produce, that's what we're confined to. But working with our vendor, we were able to make improvements, enhancements to the meal. We worked with a consultant. I had them bring in a consultant to take a look at what we were offering. The nutritional quality of it. We worked with the health department to make sure we're providing healthy, nutritious meals. We raised the calorie content. We put on the menu, the breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu, additional offerings. We've also provided snacks and smoothies to the population. So we have made great strides in the -- look, nobody comes to the prison for the food, right?
No. 19 COMMISSIONER RESNICK: But a lot of bad things can happen in our environment as a result of the food.
That's right. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: So the food needs to be nutritious, it needs to be filling, it needs to be palatable, it needs to look good. So we've made great strides in making those changes.
Yeah, and I know they're updating their report based on your feedback. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Right. We had a meeting last week with the Food Trust, and they're going to update their report. We're going to be able to take a look at it and work with them to ensure that the data is fair and -- not to censor anything.
No. 19 COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Right. To be fair and transparent, but just to make sure it's an accurate reflection of what's going on.
Yes. I think the issue was a lot of times things are said are on the menu, but anecdotally, that is not what people say that they're actually getting. So I know you're resolving that, so thank you. My next question is about data on sexual assault in the prison. Are you keeping that? Has it gone up, gone down? What are the resources, and how are you managing that space? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Yeah, we have PREA, the Prison Rape Elimination Act, we have PREA coordinators in every single jail, we have a protocol that we follow when a reported sexual assault comes through the PREA hotline or is reported to staff. Our medical provider is also involved. We involve the Philadelphia Police Department Special Victims units. As I sit here, I don't know the numbers for you, but we can make sure you get those.
Thank you. I would appreciate if we got the numbers sent to the chair of our committee. I appreciate that. Thank you very much, Council President. And thank you again to you and all those who work. This is a difficult space to work in, and you clearly have made a lot of strides and we are here to support you to make more. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Appreciate it. Thank you, Councilman.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments from members of the committee? Mr. O'Rourke, you want to take us home?
Thank you, Dr. Ahmad. She actually asked one of the questions, so it was even a shorter response. Kind of following up on leader Brooks's questions around visitation. It's my understanding that inmates have five names that they get on the list for any of the visits in person, virtual, what have you, why? Like, why is it capped at five? Especially since you have less population since, which is great news, of course. Any plans to like extend that? If you -- if there isn't like a rural rhyme or reason at this point anymore? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: So thanks for the question, Councilman. That issue came up when we implemented the tablets. So there was not an unlimited amount of visits that we could provide under the tablets because that information has to be entered into the database. We have to do -- we are doing background checks, because those individuals can also come up and visit in person. Those five are not set in stone, inmates can change the people on their list 90 days? Every 90 days you can update, change, add, delete. So it was just a management issue without it becoming unwieldy.
It's a tech issue. It's not like a decision that you were saying, you can only have these five. Is there any way to make it easier as opposed to having to wait 90 days before you swap them out? Like I guess, it probably isn't that my -- it doesn't sound to me like it's a big issue, but would there be any way to kind of work around that so folks don't have to feel like I have to update every three months who can come see me and who can't? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: I don't know. I think we're constrained by the technology of the tablet vendor.
Okay. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: And that was why those numbers were set.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jeffrey J. Young for a point of information.
Thank you. So they're only allowed to change every 90 days. And up at -- in our jails, most folks aren't there long, right? Because they're waiting for sentencing. I mean, they are waiting for court. So like, to have -- to limit them to 90 days doesn't really allow, I think, the -- their supporters to really come up there to see them, to take -- you know, make sure that they're okay. If it's only every 90 days they get to change names out. So if I'm not there that long, then if I may be missing some folks who want to come and support me while I'm in the most, you know, difficult position that I'm -- that I'm in, that I probably will ever be in. So I just want to make that note for the record, Mr. President. Thank you.
Yeah. I actually thank the member for making that point. I recognize that you're constrained by the technology. I want to encourage you, especially picking back off of what Member Young just pointed out, if we can find a workaround around that, I think that would be a reasonable thing to do, a righteous thing. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Sure. And just to address the Councilman, unfortunately our length of stay is 244 days on average. So about 47 percent of the population is released within the first days 11 or less. Those that remain stay on 12 average, 244 days, rather long for a 13 county jail. But again, that is a 14 function of court processing and not a result of any operational decisions that we make in the -- in the prison system.
In conclusion, could you break down the full options of support and programming that you have available to incarcerate individuals who are anticipating release? Just curious about what is there for those who are getting ready to get out? COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Sure. So as you're aware, we are a county jail; we are not a prison. So the vast majority of our population are pretrial detainees. We don't know when they'll be released. They could come in and be gone within the first days, or 10 they could stay on average 244 days. 11 We don't know. So planning for 12 someone's discharge and release is a 13 little difficult when they're 14 pretrial. Our sentence population is about 8, 9 percent of our population. Much, much more easier to plan for discharge. And under the leadership of Deputy Commissioner Jaco, we are working to develop an assessment tool to determine what an inmate's particular needs are, then providing those services based upon the assessment while they're with us. And then, as I said, we started our reentry center in September of 2025. Ideally, when an inmate is released, all inmates that are released go to the reentry center when it's open, because that's where they get the money back if it's on their inmate account, and that's where we have all of the service providers and our partners. But what would happen once we have our assessment plans and our tools, they would sit with a worker who would go over their assessment plan, their accomplishments inside the facility and make linkages and connections to community service providers to follow up on that treatment plan. So that is ultimately the goal that we are striving to get to. We're just not there yet. We're in the process of developing that assessment tool and working with our consultant.
Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, top brass, we appreciate you-all for being here today. Mr. President, ready to go home, sir.
Thank you very much. Any other questions, comments from members of the committee? Hearing none. Well, I want to thank you very much for your testimony. Continue to keep up the good work. Thank you very much. COMMISSIONER RESNICK: Thank you.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier for a motion at the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the committee today stand in recess until Wednesday, April 15th, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. In Room 400, City Hall.
It has been moved and properly seconded that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolution 7 before the committee today stand in recess until Wednesday, April 15th, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. COUNCILMEMBERS: Aye.
Anyone opposed? The ayes have it, and this committee stands in recess until Wednesday, April 15th of 2026, 10:00 a.m. (Committee of the Whole hearing concluded at 4:00 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence are contained fully and accurately in the notes taken by me of the above case, and this copy is a correct transcript of the same. _______________ Samanda J. Rios