COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE FY26 BUDGET City Hall, Room 400 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, April 8, 2025 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU 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 J. YOUNG, JR. COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS HELEN LOUGHEAD, CLERK - - -
Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. This is the public hearing and the public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bills Number 250-195, 250-196, 250-197, 250-198, 250-199, 250-200, 250-201, 250-202, 250-210, 250-211, 250-212, and Resolution Number 250-214. Ms. Loughead, would you please call the roll and take attendance?
Present. I want to thank you, Ms. Loughead. A quorum of the committee is present and this hearing is now called the order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the titles of the resolutions.
Bill No. 7 250-195, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1500 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Wage Net Profits Tax by revising certain tax rates, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250-196, an ordinance adopting the operating budget for fiscal year 2026. Bill No. 250-197, an ordinance to adopt a fiscal 2026 capital budget. Bill No. 250-198, an ordinance to adopt a capital program for the six fiscal years 2026 through 2031, inclusive. Bill No. 250-199, an ordinance amending chapter 19-2600 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Business Income and Receipts Taxes, to revise certain tax rates and end certain exclusions from the tax on receipts, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250-200, an ordinance amending Chapter 12-1000, the Philadelphia Code entitled Traffic Code, to revise a fee for the use of parking meters, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250-201, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of the Philadelphia Code entitled School Tax Authorization, to provide for an increase in the tax of the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia's authorized to impose on real estate and amending Chapter 19-1300 entitled Section -- entitled Real Estate Taxes; to establish an equivalent reduction in the tax rate for the City Real Estate Tax, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250-202, an ordinance amending Section 19-1806 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax to eliminate certain exemptions, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250-201, an ordinance amending Section 10-1001 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Fees of Commission of Records to increase the portion of fees for the recording of deeds and mortgages and related documents to be used for housing trust fund purposes, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250-211, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1400 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Realty Transfer Tax, by revising the rate of the tax, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250-212, an ordinance to amend Chapter 19-4400 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Development Impact Tax, to end the imposition of the tax, under certain terms and conditions. Resolution Number 250-214, resolution 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 2026 through 2030 and incorporating revisions with respect to fiscal year 2025, 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.
Thank you very much. Today we continue the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider the bills read by the clerk that constitute proposed operating and capital spending measures for fiscal year 2026, a capital program and a forward-looking capital plan for fiscal year 2026 to fiscal year 2031. This morning we have scheduled testimony from the Philadelphia Police Department. This afternoon, we have scheduled testimony from the Office of Public Safety. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first witness to testify from the administration?
Good morning. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Good morning, sir.
Good morning, Commissioner. How are you today? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I'm well, sir.
That's good. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Very well. Thank you for asking.
Just state your name for the record and begin your testimony. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Okay. Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel. And I just want to begin by saying thank you for having us here today and I'll begin my testimony. So good morning, President Johnson, members of City Council, colleagues. I stand before you today as the Police Commissioner and fellow citizen deeply committed to the fabric of our great city of Philadelphia. Joining me at the -- to be testifying are key figures in my leadership team, Commissioner John Stanford, the first deputy commissioner, Francis Healy, Deputy Commissioner, Chief of Staff, Krista Dahl-Campbell, who's here as Deputy Commissioner of Organizational Services. Each of us along with my entire executive team that are here with me today and commanders play a pivotal role in this organization. Before we delve into the details of our budget and strategic initiatives, I just want to take a pause for a moment and say thank you. I want to say thank you to the public and in particular for their support in our work. And I also want to say thank you to each and every officer, the outstanding work that these sworn men and women have done, as well as the outstanding work our non-sworn professional staff have done as well. You know, their committed service, their resilience, and their efforts of keeping the city of Philadelphia safe. I am proud of all of them and want to state that, for the record. The work that you put into every day is the backbone of our mission to create this a safer city. I'm profoundly grateful for your hard work, I'm profoundly grateful for your sacrifice and your dedication to our city. And together all of us are making a difference. And so I want all of you to know their contributions are deeply appreciated. I also want to thank this body. It wasn't so long ago during the Mayor's address that you take honor to Officer Jaime Roman who tragically was taken from us in the line of duty last year. His dedication and service and courage and sacrifice remind me every day. And I wear his, you know, a brown bracelet around my wrist to remind me of the why we do this work and why this work is so important that as we go about and our office go about risking their lives each and day -- each and every day to keep our -- our -- our city safe. I know Adam Geer is here. I think he's hiding over there. There he is. He's -- I think he didn't want to be in your direct view. He'll be here later today. I want to do -- I want to thank him and, you know, Managing Director Thiel and all the partners and -- and community partners across government for your support. At the same time, I also want to put on the record my gratitude and appreciation for the Mayor. Her leadership, her compassion, and her vision is unmatched. We all know that the Mayor has potentially set the bar high. And I -- and folks that know me, I set my bar high as well. And so, you know, it is a great place to be in this space working for this Mayor. Her unwavering support of the men and women of this department is invaluable and appreciated. And that can go without words. As I spoke to you, I do want to kind of have a conversation today. I know oftentimes, you know, we read, and I have some notes here to kind of walk myself through, but, you know, I've always said last year when I came back to this job it was an honor to come back to this job. You know, I love this job. I love doing it every day and everything about it. And part of my why when I came back was I wanted to create what I say would be one of the finest police departments in America. That is -- that is where we're driving to be. How do we be the finest? And we can't do that, you know what I mean, without the support, you know, of the men and women in this police department. We can't do that. You know, I have a quote here that Mayor often says, people might not remember what you said or what you did, but they remember how you make them feel.
You know, the mayor's been saying that for quite some time, and I've taken that as the bedrock of how do I -- how do we make you feel? How do we make this community feel when we go about doing our work? And so we've set this a vision to re imagine the work that we do in the police department, and we'll be able to talk to you about some of the things that we're re-imagining internally in the department. And so I share with you part of that work. Part of that work is getting our executive team and getting us all centered around a vision for the department. And that part of that vision was to hire Carla Showell-Lee, I believe she's here, back there with her hand waving, executive director of our organizational communication, to really start to ensure that we leadership and all of us were on the front lines knowing our why, knowing what our brand is. And so, most recently, a couple weeks ago, we did an Imagine If series. Part of her work was to create an Imagine If series with our executive team and envisioning what would it be like, you know, if we drive innovation in this department, what it would it be like if we -- and work internally to be able to build our capacity. You know, what would it be like to make police department one of the most innovative departments in the nation. What it would look like to turn and develop internal professional development, you know, as we go about our work. All of that -- all of that is to collect these collective goals. And so when we look at those collective goals, we look at the crime. I mean, we are just astounded by the reductions in the crimes. And I can sit here and tell that most of the councilmen here -- council here, have benefited from those reductions. You know, when I say Councilwoman Lozada, you know, the sincere deductions we've had in shootings and homicides in Kensington, you know, Councilwoman Bass and others who have had significant reductions in their violence. It -- it's so important for that work as we go about doing that and in our work. You know, some of the things we've been able to do as part of our work is add Ayanna Greene Davis, who's our executive director of the Office of Community Advocacy and Engagement. And I know those will be conversations president you'll talk about, but to have victim advocates in our space for the first time is going to set us on a pace to be a national model in policing as we go about that work. Bringing in David Irizarry, who's doing our gang reduction youth development. I know he talked with Councilman Young and Councilman -- along with Commissioner Massey the other day, talking about what we're going to do in one mind one to one. You know my work about working with juveniles and our work about being seeped and working with young people to be able to put them in a different trajectory. And our -- and our -- we could talk today about our diversion overall, how we're moving young people out of the system and making sure we create a space for them. And clearly Kensington, you know, as I mentioned to you, Councilwoman Lozada, and I know Councilman Harrity and Driscoll, and others who cover that area. The work that is being done, you know, I mean, has been a heavy lift, as you know, but we're proud of the direction we're going and what we're doing. Technology becomes a key part of our work now. And so you'll talk up today about the drones and the sidearm firearms. The things that I talked about you in last councilman -- session. Guess what? They're coming to reality. You know, we talked last year about the Fleet in-car cameras. Guess what? They're in the cars. You know, we talked about drones and the supporting of this body to be able to expand our drones. And we've been able to make those things happen and we're buying those. So seeing what you're providing and the Mayor has provided for us, and this body has provided, we're seeing it starting to go into action.
I got a couple of Ebikes over there and the conversation around Ebikes, but I told them to bring a few props in here that you can see that the men and women now can go further and their stamina is longer. And I have two of the officers here who talk about how it's enhancing their work and moving around and even talk about getting up some of the hills a little bit faster, right? But giving them that work to do and mobile field reporting. But also community partnerships. Like we know we cannot do this work alone. You heard that in my opening. And so we're just really phenomenally proud of this body, you know, offline throughout the year, not just last year. I've worked with many of you who raised issues around concerns around different areas, and we've been able to work through those issues, be able to address those issues in a collective way. And that is important. Part of our work is community feedback. Since the time I arrived last year, I travel around the city every month. I'm either talking to my men and women who are in the districts, or I'm talking to the community. And that feedback has been absolutely invaluable. Getting down on the ground. I told folks, you can't do this job sitting in the high tower. You got to get out there in the field. Many of my executive team members are out there with me listening to those communities, and it holds us accountable when we're talking to them. And then recruitment. You know, that recruitment is big --- is part of our process. The recruitment is significant. The investment that you have made in our recruitment is paying dividends, and we can talk about how we are advancing and bringing in. A large number of minorities are coming back into our department, which is an excellent sign for us as the department to see that happen. And I'll start to close with our five- year strategic plan. I talked to you last year about our 100-day plan where we've been able to be able to raise the funds to be able five years to change. A good friend of yours, David Zaga, who came from the school district is now at -- on my -- off my team as a executive director of strategic plan. It is something we have never embarked on. We have never embarked on a five years strategic plan to be able to guide the department for the future. How does it line with our five years fiscal responsibilities and what do we need? But what David Zaga brings to us is, is a skill and expertise. He did the strategy for the school district, and now he's going to bring that strategy. We will be on the ground in the community through advisory groups and committees, et cetera. We need to find out what does the community want, not what the police want to tell them to do. If we do this right, it'll be a collective effort across this city that'll guide us. And this is part of the mayor's vision for me, was not just to come in here and lay down a plan for 100 days, It was always meant to build a much larger end plan. So my charge and my call is to the -- to the council, is that the majority of my budget is dedicated to staffing, as you know. And we seek a number of internal and external -- I mean, external fundings, and we can talk about how we go about doing that. But the additional funds invest us to invest in technology and training resources. And the approach allows us to be innovative, allows us to improve without compromising our support and the resources needed for our men and women. And so, I -- I'll stop there and just say again, it is our goal with the support of this body, to be the finest police department in America. We will not accept less. And if we're going to be striving and pushing that as long as I sit in this position, and I know the team with me, we all do it as a collective effort. So, Councilman Johnson, I appreciate the opportunity for the opening remarks and now we'll turn it over for questions.
Well, first and foremost, I want to just thank you for your leadership. I want to thank the members of the Philadelphia Police Department for their service to the city of Philadelphia and making sure we have a safer city. And also, Commissioner, I'm always just proud to see how far you have come from us working in the trenches in the 17th Police District in Point Breeze. And I remember I mentioned this one time earlier when you were here, how there was a marathon of shootings and homicides and neighborhoods going back to back, back to back shooting at one another. And we spent the time working in the trenches to reduce the gun violence that was taking place in Point Breeze where I've grown up at. And then also, just for the record, I just want to always just commend your approach to policing, right? Because there's always different perspectives on how individuals police, but I can attest to how when you were a captain, you adopted different young men in the Point Breeze neighborhood that you didn't have to do because you have your own family to attend to. But you thought it was important enough to adopt the young men in the neighborhood so they can go on in a path and do something positive as opposed to something that's negative. So I thank you. I thank your leadership team for being on the front line and keeping our cities safe. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you.
And so, couple questions before I turn over to my members. Let's talk about how we're addressing recruitment. I know a significant part of your budget is around staffing. We want to address the issue of vacancy. Give us an idea on where we're at in terms of reducing the currently -- the current vacancy rate? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So I mean, obviously, so first we have to name the challenges that we have, right? I heard the department is down 1,200 men and women. Coming out of the last four years and going in two more additional years. Our two most challenging years where men and women have gone into the drop. Some of them because of just, you know, time on. And in addition to that, we get a little over a hundred plus officers are resigning throughout the year 13 where we have no knowledge of. 14 What I am most proud of is 15 the work that this body has helped 16 us with, as well as the Mayor and 17 others, to really for the first time 18 stabilize. And that effort started 19 before I walked in the door. 20 Commissioner Dahl and the team had done a really good job to Captain Walker and Inspector Verdell Jones to really reset. Let's start first with the -- as it relates to the physical fitness. You know, with the changing of the physical fitness standards, we're getting unfortunately 50 percent are still failing even though -- but -- that may sound bad, but that's a better than we were, right? We are still getting, you know, a percentage. A good percentage will come in passing at the 30 percent rate, and then we'll drop down to about a percent rate 14 for the other ones. 15 They all have to -- so for 16 your audience, the standard didn't 17 change. They still, as I did in 18 1986 and came out of the academy in 19 '87, had to test out at the academy. 20 So they still have this test out at 21 the standard. So that is working 22 for us. Where we're seeing phenomenal success is the reading test. Through the reading test, one of the things that the team discerned was to give out the practice cards. So even though we have not developed a new test yet, giving them that has created an impact. We now give the test a second time, and we now give the test the third time. There was nothing preventing us from doing a multiple tests to get those individuals prepared. So we're seeing a significant -- a 70 percent pass rate now up from what was 30 percent. That is significant. And so as a result, we were able to exceed our numbers last year of 300. Our goal was 300, we had 369. I believe this year our goal -- to get to our fully staffing, we need to have 75 officers going into the academy every six weeks. Right now, we're hitting a mark around 40, but we believe, and if we continue down our pace, the front line of the department, the men and women in the field, we will get their staffing levels back up in the next one to two years.
What's the recruitment strategy to get to that goal of 75? And then I also just want to say, I think from working this body and having done work in partnership with Philadelphia Police Department, either it was last year or the year before, we have recruited probably the most diverse recruitment class that we've had over a significant period of time. So elaborate on that, and also the strategy on getting that 75. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I think so part of what -- through Octo Design Marketing to this body, we were able to get funds for the first time. I think part of what I -- we recognize coming back -- me coming back into the department is that we were old school. We call and people are going to show up. Those days are gone. We had to start to learn to turn -- I tell people we have to run the department as a business. Even though it's a paramilitary organization and it has the remnants of that, we'll never get rid of all of that. But we can't run an 870-something million dollar budget not like a business. And so part of that was bringing in Octo Design. They helped us actually with our leadership program I described, but they're going to really be laser focused now on being much more targeted on where those specific groups are, where should we be really directing. We can no longer -- and I appreciate the work of this body. We have posters on buses. We have, you know, we're doing our recruitment strategies and the numbers are moving, but not moving well enough. We have a different group of folks we have to engage now, you know, showing people coming off of rafters and guys compelling off of -- off of roofs and all of those things are phenomenal. But most of the young people coming into the department today are coming to serve. And so we have to get them in a different way. Dominique Bethel, my daughter, would not come here unless she was going to serve. And so what we have to do is retool our direction, retool how we talk about policing, but also at the same time, this work matters as well. When individuals are seeing department beat down or talking, I mean, you know, they're not going to come. Why would I come to the department? And so this last year has been a great uplifting year for us. It's going to take some years of momentum. I mean, we're -- listen, and we don't ever sit here and tell you we're perfect, Council President, you know that. But we cannot go back to a place where, you know, the police department is devalued, demoralized, and then say, why can't we get people, right? We have to make sure that we continue to keep focus on the positivity of the departments. The majority of my men and women do everything you ask them every day, you know, with service. And so I think that's where we're going in that direction, bringing in all of those tools and humbling ourselves and say, we don't know. We need expertise to show us how to do that, and see if they can deliver on the contract and the support that this body gave us to be able to do that.
And before I turn over to my members for the next round. Issue very near and dear to me, and you elaborated on it when we had a brief conversation. And that's supporting victims and cold victims of gun violence. First, give me an update on the homicide unit. At one point in time, we were addressing the issue of making sure they had cell phones, technologies. But most importantly, probably the most important thing is making that connection with the family that lost their loved one to census gun violence. The follow-up. Even if the case is cold, still just checking in if y'all still are staying on top of the case with the family members. Just give me an idea and an update on where we're at in terms of the homicide unit and interacting with victims and cold victims of gun violence. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So I want to begin by, you know, obviously, you know, last year when I came back, I had a vision for the department before I arrived. And one of those core areas was the gap between, you know, our victims of homicides and the connection between, you know, the families and the homicide. I went to the Mayor and talked to her about, you know, our budget and being able to do that. I know, President Johnson, this has been a -- something you've been railing about for quite some time, even when I was back as a captain in the district. And Dorothy -- Dr. Dorothy Speight from Mothers In Charge, as well as Shante Love from Amir, all have been talking in those rooms about how we're not connecting, or it was nothing more frustrating to see a mother come up to you and say, I haven't heard anything about my son's or daughter's death in over a year. And no indictment of the detectives, let me say that. You know, it's hard. I mean, we went to a year when we had -- four years, and we almost had 2,000 homicides. The expectation of those men and women to be able to be able to do a lot of that work was a challenge. And we as an organization had to rectify that. So last year, I submitted to the budget, and I again, thank this body, but we were able to bring in an executive director to lead our -- that advocacy work. And we were able to hire Ayanna Greene, who's phenomenal, who understands this space, and she has a lived experience by losing her brother to a homicide. And so we have hired 10 victim advocates. I was able to -- and supervisors. You'll be proud to know, I met with them yesterday, myself, Commissioner Stanford and others went in there and welcomed them.
Okay. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: These are non-sworn professional members. They'll be trained over the next month and a half to be able to -- to be able to connect with the detectives. Commissioner Vanore is back here. They're primed, they're ready, I think to my left. It's primed and ready. And where they will be the connective tissue between the detectives moving forward in whenever we have an incident where a homicide, the victim advocate. Now this -- I just want to make sure we level set here. I love Dr. Dorothy Speight, I love Amir, I love all of them. This is not to take away from their work, right? This is to be a connectivity to their work. We're not providing programming, right? We're being that connective. Where do the service we can direct them to, you know, and where can we support them? And both of those unit -- entities are training -- helping for our training to do that. But if we do this right, and I said that in my opening, we will be a national model, and we will not just for homicides, though, right away, special victims, the conversations has come from them about what do we do with victims and special victim victims? What do we do in our crash investigations? We have at least 40 individuals who will get killed in hit and runs. What have we done for those families? And what do we do for the countless number of people that we have in shootings? And so part of our work will be, we envision this is a small investment that at some -- at some point will be a larger investment. And again, it's not to duplicate or to remove the work, but if policing, as you indicated, we're going to change. We can no longer advocate some of these responsibilities to others. We want to own part of this space so we bring community into our department, guided by supporting with, you know, non-sworn staff who are executive levels leading our work. And so I just appreciate your early support, this body, and all the work that's going to get underway. And I'm excited about where we're going.
Thank you. And just a statement before I -- as I turn over to my members. We are at a historical low when it comes to homicides and shootings here in the city of Philadelphia. And so as the lead law enforcement agency in the city of Philadelphia, I think y'all deserve some credit for the work that y'all have been doing in terms of addressing this issue. So I'm going to give y'all -- POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you so much.
-- a round of applause because it's easy to always criticize and say what's not happening, right? And do the whole -- but I'm coming from lived experience, so I can't speak to a lot of privileged folks that get in this space and say their perspective. But when you live in the lived experience, and you come from an area that deals with poverty, and you grow up in the neighborhood and you see gun violence, and you grew up in the neighborhood when you see half your friends being murdered in the streets, and you actually see the dead bodies as a young person, right? But now as a dad, raising my two children in the very same neighborhood that I live in, and I see that crime has been cleaning up, and I see homicides and shootings are down, I just think it's something that we need to acknowledge and be straight up about. It's not a political issue. We're talking about people whose lives are being taken on a day to day basis. And so that's not a sound bite. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I appreciate you.
So I just want to thank all of you for y'all hard work and your dedication. To the gentleman who's the leader in this body around this particular issue, I'm going to turn it over to Councilmember Curtis Jones, Jr. the first one, who's the chair of Public Safety.
Thank you so much, Mr. President. And I will only say that if I was your political advisor, this was the year to ask us for more money because we were feeling you. And so -- POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Bless you.
But since you did not do that, and the basic increases for the crime lab which we are for, which is in the process of actually performing your duties to be able to solve crimes. All of us -- many of us have actually visited that two small crime lab that I've never seen that much marijuana and cocaine in one spot, so many guns. And to know that you guys have outgrown that space and that it matters to the person who's processing the rape kit to be able to find out DNA issues with the ballistics, to find out if that was the same gun, you'd -- it matters. And so for you to finally have a location that may even produce a training school for future forensics operators, I'm very proud of. But let me lead off by saying thank you, thank you, thank you. And thank you for you. Thank you for the Mayor, thank you for your team, whether it is in the 19th when we have our 7:00 a.m. roll calls, which you have actually been on working with our schools to talk about how to get our babies, our scholars, to and from school without hurting each other, or whether it is right outside this door for the plan that we're putting together to make sure that the 10 or so schools in this area don't use our plaza as their school yard and battleground. Thank you for being responsive. Thank you for the nuisance business task force that is dealing with as Member Bass talks about and fought against, liquor, single drinks, Lucy cigarettes. These little -- you are on the front line of helping us solve at a granular level. So now I've said all of that, but I mean it, and I believe our president doesn't say things he doesn't mean. So thank you. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you, sir.
I want to then transition and say, with the 39 percent decrease in homicides, we worked with you guys on our blueprint for Safer Philadelphia, and thank you and your team for working with us to produce those recommendations. What I would ask you, what do you attribute the reduction in violent crime in Philadelphia to? How would you say, if it were the top three things, what are they? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I wouldn't put it in three and no, I think it's all of it, right? I think we have to be careful because you can see that when things got bad, everybody looked down, took their brake pad off and started hitting the gas, right? And I think that's where the posture we have to stay in, right? It was no longer be, hey, I think the police department is getting it done and so let them carry the load. I think this group is getting it done, let them carry the load. No, we all, all -- I think as a person we're seeing at the school district receiving so many of the young people getting killed -- getting killed at the doorstep of the school. What are we at the time with the school district are doing to make sure and we are doing mental health. I mean, and working with young people, and we're doing mentoring programs. What is our part? I think all of it -- all of it plays a part. Clearly technology, and I talked about that. But the Mayor has very consistently said her whole strategy is rooted in prevention, intervention and enforcement. That is an inclusive strategy, right? It is not just about the police department putting cops on dots. And we know that focused policing and hotspot policing, hot places, hot people, hot times, can -- that -- that's been -- we know where that works. We know that if I put enough cops here, that these things are going to happen. But the reality now is we have to understand that all, all of it, every time an adult touches a child's life and have one positive adult in his private life, we know the data says that you can change the trajectory of that child's life. We know that. It doesn't lead on the news, it's not going to be seen, but we know that it's happening. We know that when we -- when we do our policing work effectively, we know when we do our diversion work. And so I could not relegate it or get into those three boxes of prevention. And I know that Adam will be talking about the work that their team is doing. We can talk about the prevention, whether it be our, you know, our PAL centers and all of the other activity that we're doing to address these issues. I do think the technology, though -- I will lean into the technology. I think the technology that we have today, and Commissioner Vanore or his team, as numbers have come down, what it has enabled us to do is much, much better investigations and not to be overwhelmed. And so that's why you're seeing an 83 percent clearance rate in the detective homicide, 37 percent clearance in the shooting investigation group for those of people who have shot somebody, but they could have killed that person. So treating those, I mean, those -- the work of those groups as well as the detective visions and our non-sworn and our forensic staff, I know Ryan's here from our team, assistant director, dealt -- all that stuff is having an impact.
So I want to, if I may, Mr. President, just put this question and I'll yield the mic. Describe for us how technology, manpower and interdenominational forces work together. And what do I mean by that? In the case of individuals that we've seen go from, let's say, the Macy's on the subway through Temple into North Philly, how do you blend multiple departments working together using technology such as cameras and others to apprehend individuals and through license plate readers and the DBCC, how is that blending together to be a force multiplier? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Oh, yeah. I think you just did it, right. You nailed it. You blended together. And I'm going to echo exactly what you just described. Today, you know, we have around 6,500 crime cameras across the city fill up. I think we have around 2,500 plus that are ours. But we work with SEPTA, University of Penn, others that we have access to cameras. Today with the technologies, particularly for our Genetec system and be able to share that video, you know, and we can see, I mean, and the user, the subscriber. I know Kevin Thomas who's from data analysis, we have 3,400 subscribers today who can look at those cameras. And so the ability to say, Hey, somebody came off the camera here, what direction we can do, have somebody visually looking that almost like a visual foot beat, be able to pick the person up. License plate readers, I think that became a conversation in one of the previous sessions where we now have over a hundred license plate, but we have hundreds now. The Fleet 3 camera system that we put into our cameras has LPR capacity. And so we're now being able to triple and quadruple our ability. So if a car leaves here in a shooting and a tag and has been picked up already by passing, the car hasn't made it been stopped by the police officer, but he's picked up that tag, we can start to localize where that individual is going. Then we can go to those cameras that you described. And then we have some other technology that we won't get too steeped in here that really, really -- the technology has really taken us. And our drone technology, which we may talk about more advanced is a false multiplier as we have our first responder model with that underway.
So, Mr. President, we've come a long way from the homicide police getting their first cell phones to the body- worn cameras in the 22nd to where we are now.
And I think that has played a part -- POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Absolutely.
-- and without violating people's civil rights, that we can use this to protect the rights of citizens. And I'm grateful. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Member Jones. Chair recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. Good Morning, Commissioner. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Good morning.
I really appreciated your testimony and thanks to you and your team for being here today and for the work that you do. Last year, we celebrated an important budget victory, additional funds to make our 911 department more competitive by giving operators raises and creating supervisor positions. The goal of the additional funding was to improve operator retention. So we were not losing experienced operators to collar counties. I would like to check in on the status of these changes. First, did we implement raises for 911 operators? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes.
If we did, how does our pay rate currently compare to surrounding counties? Have we created the supervisor positions and hired for them? If not, why not? And what are the barriers to us doing so? And how is the department working to remove those barriers? And finally, can you speak about how these changes have impacted 911 staff turnover numbers? Are we seeing improvements in retention? And what has been the impact on operator morale? And how would you describe operator morale today? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So those are all excellent questions. I don't think I wrote them all down, but maybe I'll -- hopefully I'll cross all of them as we -- as we speak. You know, one of the first things that I did, councilwoman, when I arrived is recognizing where it just as demoralizing and low morale in the sworn was equally, if not, double in the non-sworn. The -- they had definitely men and women who were working each and every day who felt like they're -- they were not valued.
Yeah. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And so I embarked on meeting with them, sitting down with them. I created an advisory group from that work. And now I meet with them regularly as well as the chief who's in there now working with them to really elevate them. And it's going to take some time.
Okay. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I will -- I will -- I have to name it. It is going to -- you don't -- just because you say it's getting better, no, I think the Mayor eloquently say how people feel, right? And so we have been working very diligently to support them. We do still struggle with some staffing challenges, getting folks to get through the process. The days when I came in almost 40 years ago, sitting at a desk, now's like a cockpit. And I think some of you were there not too recently, if you -- it requires a much-heightened skill that's requiring a lot more work. And so we are continuing to work to deal with those vacancies. The raise for the -- of moving those into the supervisory position, that is part of our FOP contract. I expected that to be resolved as we go through our contract process with the FOP as it relates to the work rules and common work. We'll be able to address that. But we are moving in the right direction, I believe. But I would be totally wrong to sit there and say that are continue to be challenging in the space. As it relates to comparative salary, I know that was an issue before. None of our salaries compared to the -- to the counties.
Okay. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Even by policing salaries. However, you know, I mean, many of them make up with overtime and able to make well beyond their salary base as a result of the staffing shortages.
Thank you. Is there anybody here who can -- I appreciate that context. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. Yes, ma'am.
Is there anybody here who can give more specifics about whether the raises happened? How we're doing on retention? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: The raises did happen. The raises -- the raises did go through?
And what do our hiring and retention numbers look like at this time? And is there any more you can say? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, of course.
I understand that the supervisor positions are a negotiation with the FOP, but is there more that you can say around how those talks are going and if that's likely to actually happen? Because that was a big part of sort of the morale issue with the operators. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER DAHL- CAMPBELL: Good afternoon or good morning still. Chris Dahl-Campbell, Deputy Commissioner of Organizational Services. I just want to say thank you for your support in this area. You've always been a great supporter of our dispatchers. So we actually have an active list for the positions for supervisors for our non-sworn staff. The hope is once we complete arbitration, we'll be able to go into that list and begin to promote those individuals into those spaces. And there has already been, you know, a monetary raise, associated percentage raise when they get those positions. So that is ready to go once we get through arbitration.
Great. And any information about hiring and retention numbers? I know last -- in prior years, we were kind of struggling with that. What does it look like today? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER DAHL- CAMPBELL: So we are continuing to press to hire more individuals. We have smaller classes. One of the things we've heard is that the continuous training is draining to the floor. So what we've done is to be able to stretch that out a bit, give people the ability to not always be in training mode, but continue to bring resources on. So we're continuing to try and bring our numbers up. We do think that that will help with retention as well, giving people less time to be in that position of constantly in training. Meaning the experienced dispatchers. So we can balance that retention as well as recruitment.
Thank you. If you all could follow-up with the specific numbers to the Council President -- POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah.
-- I would appreciate it. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We'll look at that.
And thank you so much. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER DAHL- CAMPBELL: Yes, ma'am. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And I do want to emphasize council on what she's described about, one of the things, meeting with those 911 dispatchers, the morale also was impacted. We were dump -- we were putting so many people through the training, they couldn't come up for air, right?
Okay. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And that was impacting the downstream impacts of how the person was getting trained. So we did have to go slow to go fast because we were definitely, that was one of the things we had to give them a little bit of a break in that -- in that process.
Thank you very much. And also, just to follow-up with the actual responses in writing to the Chair, and we'll provide the members of the committee. Chair recognizes Dr. Anthony Phillips.
Thank you, Council President. I just want to thank you again. Y'all have been great with working for our district and our neighbors and seen a lot of great -- our neighborhood has seen a lot of great improvement from each of you. So thank you again. And also for your work with me as well, in general. I just want to ask a series of questions around young people. As we approach the summer months, what are the, you know, particular safety plans that you're going to -- that the department's going to have in place to protect young people and families at recreation centers? So that's one. The next question, I just wanted to also pose while I still have the time is, youth inclusion at the TWIS program. What efforts are underway to ensure that youth voices are authentically included in the design of the TWIS violence prevention activities? Okay. Lastly, can TWIS share how it's -how it collaborates with youth serving organizations? And I also want to learn about the Safe Quarter program. What data or community feedback is used to determine school participation? Are there plans to expand into high violence, underserved school zones? All right. And I'll talk about Town Watch Integrated Services later. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So will you -- so Doctor, I -- I'm trying to make some notes about start with the rec center. Wasn't -- are you talking about TWIS, Town Watch Integrated Service?
Yes. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Because that would not come under my charge.
Yeah, that's right. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Per se.
That's right. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So that would be under Anthony Murphy and under Adam's team.
Okay. I'll come back to that one. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
So let's just start with the question -- POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: The rec center?
Let's start with the question around the Parks -- the rec centers. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So what do we have historically done as we shift, as, you know, we have 58 -- well, you would know, but we have 58 officers assigned to our school beach. As the summer approaches and schools starts to close, we've historically every year shifting to our rec centers and playgrounds, et cetera. We have started that process, Commissioner Cram, who leads the patrol operations, leads that effort with Commissioner Slawson. And they will start to sit down and go through using the data. We have a large, as you know, over 190 playgrounds and et cetera. So we have to be very focused on the data and we will start to determine where we're going to start to move our men and women into those forward positions to address those areas. We get -- as you know, we get a number of issues around our pools. And so we spend a lot of time working with the rec centers. And they do a phenomenal job in that work as a true collaboration. And so we will start to focus on those areas. In light of the most recent shootings, one at Finley and the other one at Lonnie Young, we directed -- myself and Commissioner Stanford directed Commissioner Cram to develop a pre-summer because we don't want to ensure that we're not having a pattern of activity at our rec center. So as a result of that, we shifted some funds as well as staffing to be able to start now ahead of the summer to start to direct our attention to core areas of the -- of the city where we impact -- have significant impact. So we're moving forward in that strategy. Our police athletic league is part of that. And then obviously the mayor's strategy globally that we announced last week as it relates to all of the activity going on.
Thank you so much. And I just want to hopefully get more time to talk about this later, but I want to learn more about your -- how you're coordinating with your department to respond to quality of life issues, you know, abandoned cars, vehicles, trucks, all that and more, like, because I know that the response time in the past has been slow. How are you finding ways to make them more expedited in the department? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
You're welcome. Thank you. The chair recognizes Councilmember Nick O'Rourke.
Thank you, Mr. President. And good morning to all the top brass of the PPD. Thank you for being here today. We spoke a bit about the cameras in the built environment. But I did want to mention that last year, I believe you said the department had deployed 3,435 body- worn cameras. And that the plan was to outfit all first specialized units by the end of 2024, and then the whole force by the end of '25. So here we are a year later, as I understand it, with the same number of cameras deployed and the same timeline. There are no new cameras, but the department is saying that you're still on track. Given that the reasons for delay really haven't changed, what is the department doing now to actually prioritize camera deployment for specialized units and then the whole force? And I say especially for the specialized units like the Narcotics Strike Force. I'm going to raise this point that I think, it was last May that Inqui reported that the narcotics officer secretly used cameras during drug bust, and then hid the footage that contradicted their court testimony. So can we share a bit about how you're actually prioritizing camera deployment specifically for the -- really for the whole force, but really around the specialized units, Commissioner? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So I don't know if the numbers got inverted, but we -- all of our district personnel have body-worn cameras, as you may know. We're also switching now from, you know, a -- Camera 4 is another new version. This is Bluetooth technology. So we're in the process of switching out those cameras to be able to -- and what that Bluetooth technology will allow us, when my camera turns on, your camera will turn on automatically without the officer even engaging his camera. And so we're moving to a much more advanced technology in that regard. All of our special units, I think there's only -- Kev, four? Three remaining special units. So part of, most recently after the airport incident where we recognized that the airport had not had their body-worn cameras, because many of those peripheral units were being the last ones to be deployed their.
The periphery units, you said? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Say it again.
You said the periphery units? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, the -- like the airport would be a unit that's -- in the airport, we're definitely trying to get the front line men and women who were at -- when -- at the front lines, even though the airport's at the front line, but in a different line of activity. And so the -- all of those have been done. So the Mayor, you know, made it very clear our very expectations. So we were able to rework a lot of the activity. We have three remaining special units to be deployed. And in addition to, we now have been able to put the Fleet 3 cameras -- car cameras in all of our cars. So all of our cars now have cameras. We're still working with Melissa Scott in IT to make some connectivity issues. We still -- but we have the cameras and we anticipate by May -- mid to late summer. Not only we'll we have body cameras worn in all of our front line and our folks who are connecting in the community, but we'll also have in-car cameras to support that as well.
I heard the bell, but just to clarify, the -- you're saying by mid to late summer, the remaining three specialized units will have body cameras? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I think they'll be -- yes, that's correct.
I'm going to say this and then I get off the clock. Has the department actually updated any policies around, I guess they're called real- time crime center cameras since they came out? And can you commit to prioritizing -- well, you've already done that. Has -- do you have any updated policies around real-time crime center cameras since that came out? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I think we have done -- I can't say for sure. I know that we've made some adjustments because of some of the issues coming out of the defendant's association around how we were, you know, direct using that language, around the cameras in court. But I can follow-up with you. I don't know if there's any specific part of the policy that you were referring to, was something key that you were looking at, Council?
We may have some questions about it. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Okay.
I just -- I think the first thing was to kind of understand if there was any, not improvements, if there had been any updates as it relates to the policies? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, I can't say if there's been any --
-- and then from there we might have some follow-up. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir. We'll follow-up. I can't say if there's been specific updates, but I'd love to.
I'm going to respect the discretion of the Chair and I'll come back around for a second around. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Member O'Rourke. Councilmember Brooks.
Thank you. And good morning. It's good to see you today. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Good morning, ma'am.
The city's proposal includes a call for the independent investigations into police misconduct to be performed by the Citizens' Police Oversight Commission as defined by the CPOC legislation. Is the department's leadership in support of the transparency and accountability that the CPOC is working towards? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes. We understand the charge of the order that was executed, and we're following that as we go through that process.
So, is the department in support of the CPOC performing independent investigations as well? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, those are the conversations underway along with our union as it relates to how that goes underway. I mean, those things are moving in through arbitration to have those conversations about the ability to do that.
Okay. And what are the barriers to CPOC performing independent investigations from your perspective as police leadership? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I don't -- I mean, I guess this a difficult to have the conversation here because it's part of the arbitration process. Councilwoman, I don't know if I -- not to not answer your question, but those are kind of questions that are going to be handled in the arbitration at this point, so I don't want to get ahead of that. I do think at times we have to figure out how to separate those processes. Today, we sit in the room and we do those investigations. The perfect process now is what does that look like from an independent investigation, now bringing that investigation back to the police department, and those then bring you over into the labor issues and part of the conversations in the contract negotiation with the FOP.
Okay. My next groups of questions is around the drones. How many functioning drones does the department have and what company makes the drones for the department's purchases? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So Axon is our body-worn camera -- company that does our Fleet 3 and also does our body-worn cameras. Skydio is the company that does the drones for us. We have a policy in place on how to use that. We're -- I don't know if you're asking a more larger question, but we have a significant ways to go in our drone process. We have an initial purchase. The police foundation was able to support us as we got underway, and then we'll -- using the funds that we received from City Council last year, we'll be making a continuing purchase. But there's some infrastructure things as we move into our first responder model. Long term, we hope in the next four to five years, that we will be able to deploy a drone on all priority one and two incidences, and that that drone will be on location less than two minutes.
How many police department staff or civilian are approved to operate these drones currently? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: How many?
Yeah. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Right now, we have six officers who are assigned to the drones. They're primarily been working in a beta testing model. Much of it we have done down at the Eagles games because of the massive traffic. We are down in Kensington. We met with the community down in Kensington as we've gone through using and starting to use the drones to support us in the open-air drug markets and the situational awareness for the men and women down in the field. And we're going to continue through that process, that testing model because as I shared, we have a long way to go in building the infrastructure for a full drone program citywide.
And can you just let me know how many arrests have been made since we've enacted these drones in the air -- some of the areas that you do? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. Yeah. I could tell you probably none. I mean, with situational awareness, I can share with you some of the things that we've been able to do to proactively support those men and women, particularly our SWAT team and others who are doing high level entries. That's been a very -- a good tool for us. We see this as minimizing our force by being able to have the drone see before we see in areas that we can't see. Yeah.
So it's been part of the investigative process and gathering information. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Absolutely. I mean, we just did a -- on -- when we had an event on the parkway where we had a child who was missing, got away from his mother and he had a disability, the drone was able to find that child and direct our men and women into that space. So we see a myriad of ways to use the drone to be able to -- as a force multiplier as something to help us in situational awareness. Chula Vista, California, is probably one of the best models you can see. And they really use it in a proactive way to ensure that we use it to be able to support our work. And I think most importantly, the situational awareness we think is going to be a significant benefit. Police officers, if done right, would not be walking into a violent situation because the drone would be able to show them what's going on around them. And we could take, you know, mitigations to be able to avoid those negative contexts.
Second round. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore-Richardson.
Thank you. Thank you, Council President, and thank you so much Commissioner Bethel and to your entire team. And I'm going to very quickly go through my thank yous for the year. I had my team put together a list of all of the officers we have worked with and all of the captains and community relation officers and crime prevention officers that we've worked with this year. So I'm going to start with thank you. First to you, Commissioner Bethel, thank you very much. And you know, that also comes from Bonnie Lucas. Deputy Commissioner Stanford, DC Dales, Massey, Cram. Rosario, DahlCampbell. Of course, Fran Healy, thank you so much for all of your legislative prowess. We couldn't do a lot of the nuisance business work without you and drug paraphernalia work. POLICE OFFICER BETHEL: Thank you.
We have too many PPD captains to name, and I'm getting this directly from my team. But, you know, I have to start with my captain -- our captain, Councilmember Jones and I, Captain Nuble in the 19th. We love Captain Nuble. I just have to put that on the record. I know you all came to the community meeting at Overbrook High School where Councilmember Jones and I work together. But I just have to put that on the record. We love Captain Nuble in the 19th District. So thank you for Captain Nuble. You know, he has a huge fan club in Wynnefield, and I'm a part of it. So thank you for Captain Nuble. And of course, Captain Brown down at the airport, Captain DeBlasis in the 8th District. He's been helping us with a number of abandoned vehicles in that area. Officer Caggiano from the 5th District and Captain Kimrey. They've been really, really helpful to us. And Officer Caggiano, I have to say, just a stellar community relations officer, just stellar. The 14th Police District. They are wonderful with the CERC Center in Councilmember Bass's District. We visited there together at JJC. You also mentioned the Ebike, so I have to go back to the bike tour we did in the 4th with the late Tab Ali. He kept us going on those bikes through the hills of Manyunk and Roxborough, and we certainly miss him. Captain Green in the 12th, Captain Waters in the 18th, Captain Goodson in the 22nd, Captain Wheeler in the 25th, Captain Busa in the 35th and all of their community relation officers and crime prevention officers. Each one that I named my office personally work with on a constituent case or policy issue over the last year. So I just wanted to say thank you for that. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you, ma'am.
I also wanted to put on the record that I did put this on the record during the labor hearing that we had relative to ensuring that we have community participation as a part of the arbitration panel for the negotiations with PPD and the FOP. I know that's not in your wheelhouse, but I just wanted to put that on the record. I wanted to start with our curfew. You know, that we have the Community Evening Resource Centers. We have our policy for the curfew enforcement. But I wanted to ask you all about any updated statistics you can share around curfew enforcement. Obviously some of the more recent incidents that we've seen with young people have not occurred, you know, during the hours that they should, you know, have been home around curfew. But I wanted to just have you all talk about how you collaborate with DHS and with the CERC Centers. We did receive information based on all the reporting that we have, that with the CERC Centers, we do have a lot of young people who are going voluntarily, which is great. That's what we want, right? DHS shared last week that they were able to service more than 50,000 young people at all of our Community Evening Resource Centers across the city. But we do want to see, particularly as we approach the summer months, that young people who may be in violation of the curfew, we want to see them go to the CERC so they could receive help and support from all of the services that are provided there. And I know it's our policy to try to take them home, but we do want to try to help them with services and support. So I wanted to just ask about the curfew enforcement and any updated statistics that you could share. And then additionally, I wanted to circle back to the hearing that we had last week regarding a nuisance businesses. We had a joint committee hearing between our Licenses and Inspections and Public Safety Committee to address the illegal sale of drug paraphernalia. And we've been working really closely with Fran Healy on that matter. And I just wanted to have you talk about how you would be able to increase additional officers if we were able to double the amount of nuisance business task force that we have for the city. So the thought process is to have one for each tour. So have you know, L&I inspectors, Public Health inspectors, and police officers that can go on your first tour of duty, and then second tour, and then overnight. What would that look like? And what would we need to allocate to ensure that you all be able to have adequate officers to do that? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Okay. So I -- I'm going to do the top, and then end, and I'll let Fran do the middle around the nuisance. But as it relates to the curfew enforcements, I mean, last year we had almost 2,800 curfew violations. And as you know, only a small number, I think based on the data, around 77 kids may have been brought to the center as a result. And many of that -- much of that is rooted in our policy. As you know, our first line of -- is to take those young people home. And I know that sometime goes against all of the things it was built, but it's got to be the right thing for us as an organization. And the conversation around how we address our young people and how we engage with our young people, we think it is part of that process. However, I -- as we build out, as you know, we just started a new diversion program. You know, as we started the school, our school diversion is going extremely well. Right? We've done a 90 percent reduction in the number of children -- go ahead, sir.
Just for the record, Madam Leader, so you just not locking little kids up? You got a diversion program? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, sir.
Could you elaborate for the Majority Leader? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So, I mean, as you know, back in 2014, I created a diversion program for our schools that has been -- oh, I must be getting in the middle of a fight here. But anyway, I'm going to make it work. But we were able to divert young people from our school district. At that time 1,600 children were being arrested as young as 8 years old. A child would literally 9 walk into a school with a mace, and 10 we would put her in a cell block and hold her in a cell block for six hours. This is unacceptable. Through that process of changing the way the policy, working with Commissioner Ali's and DHS and other commissioners before her, we were able to instill a program where we divert, as you know, into our CUAs the same -- many of the same locations that we do at CERCs. We went from a 90 percent reduction from 1,600 kids being arrested to last year, 147 children. So we now have expanded that now into the districts and citywide. Working with the team, my team here, we were able to divert now a three- tier process. So officers diverting young people in the field for Tier 1 minor, very minor offense. That kid will get, you know, told that, you know, knock it off but also given -- referred to some services. Tier 2, they get started getting referred to our CUAs. And then our -- those are thefts. And then our Tier 3, we also use brain science. A 10-year- old child in a stolen car, something's wrong.
Yeah. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Let's just name it, we don't have to run from it. I don't have to lock up a 10-year-old child to prove a point. Something's wrong. And so what we decided for our 10 and 12 year olds, for those level offenses, they go into a more intensive diversion with our CUAs. But in those two or three, we are now be able to take them to our CERC. So we anticipate as we ramp up, as the men and women get more engaged in it, we have over a hundred kids have been diverted so far. I know Lisa is here, Lisa Thurows back here, who runs the JAC. We're working -- Councilman Gauthier, I didn't get rid of the JAC. We found a way to make it work so we can integrate our work. So all the diversions, a lot of it's going right through the Juvenile Assessment Center. So we kept that. I know last year I was pulling away, but I'm a smart man when I know I need to reset. And so we think those CERCs are going to be a very good tool for our men and women to start to move. There's, I believe two other CERCs now have the time period to be able to address that earlier time period. We think working with Commissioner Ali and her team we'll be able to start to use that as another way to work with our young people in addition to the curfew activity we have now.
I heard the bell, so I'm going to honor the clock and circle back on the second round regarding the nuisance businesses. But I was writing so small and so fast because I didn't want to forget anybody. I want to make sure I said Vanore and Kelly, too. Okay. Thank you all so much. And then really quickly on the CERCs, I will tell you that I did visit one of our CERC Centers. I'm not going to say which one. And I had an opportunity to sit with the young people. To your point, regarding the young people and the stolen vehicles, I learned something completely new that day. They called them licks. When they steal the cars it's called licks. And the young man said, but I'm here now. He said, I really like it here and I enjoy coming here. And he said, this is like my third or fourth week coming. And he said, I'm not going to do any licks anymore. And I was like -- and so anyway, I learned something new going to the CERC. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, you're teaching me over here too, so.
Right. I've never heard that before, but I'll come back on the second round to just circle back on the drug paraphernalia issue and the hearing that we had last week just to see what the needs would be in order for us to adequately do the enforcement along with PPD and with Health and with L&I. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am. And --
Okay. Thank you. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- Commissioner Healy will take that when he comes back around.
Thank you. My sisters giving shout outs. So Deputy Commissioner Dales, I see sitting over there served in the 17th, going to the young boys that was shooting up the neighborhood house out in Tasker, trying to tell them to put down their guns or we coming to get you, and how can I adopt you? And that's -- and I want to also thank Deputy Commissioner Cram for helping me with the dirt bikes.
Yep. That are having significant impact in South Philadelphia. As well as Joe Green, who was with me recently doing our "Peace Not Guns" walk, where a young lady with 17-year-old was murdered in a driveway in southwest Philadelphia. And obviously Captain McKinney who worked with us during our "If tour" in South Philadelphia and Point Breeze Avenue. Thank you, Councilwoman Majority Leader Gilmore-Richardson for making sure we put it on the record. Because we want to give people flowers when they actually doing the work. Right? As opposed to, you know, always saying what's wrong, we want to celebrate what's right. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And I want to say, I appreciate that, Councilman. I didn't say that at the beginning. I mean, we're old, but we appreciate, I mean, I don't care how -- people love to be appreciated.
Yes. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And that's how you feel valued. And we just say thank you for elevating that. Thank you so much.
And you're right here in Stanford for dancing with the people during the parade. He was like -- POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, but he --
-- Super Bowl parade. He in deep South Philly too, having fun with the residents and lifting up their spirits. Majority Leader.
To your point, to put on the record, I have to say, because we have a good track record. Councilmember Jones knows this in the 19th, DC Stanford was our former captain in the 19th.
I just want to put that on the record.
Understood. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Stay with him. Stay with him.
We have to be careful or -- every time we celebrate -- POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Every time you talk, you lose them. You lose them.
-- they wind up getting promoted. So that I was -- POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, I was just talking about the 19th district captain. I think we give -- that's -- no, no. 10
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass.
Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Good morning, ma'am.
How's everybody? I also want to follow the lead started by my colleagues and start off with a round of thank yous. Commissioner Bethel, thank you so much for all of your work and for your years of service to the city of Philadelphia. You know, we know that, you know, in this job, I always say we make it look easy so people really don't know how many things we're doing beneath the surface. You know, just trying to keep everything together for the department, for the city. You know, hats off to you. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you, ma'am.
Much respect. Much respect due. I also wanted to give a big shout out to, in the 39th District, Captain Busa, in the 14th District Captain McCollum, and in the 35th Captain Burks, all of the community relationship officers who we have great working relationships with, the police clergy, the PDAC members who really support our police on the ground. District Deputy Commissioner -- I'm sorry, Deputy Commissioner Joel Dales. I didn't see him here. Somebody said he was here. Is he over there? He's over there. I remember when he was Captain Dales in the 14th District, many, many moons ago. And we had a great working relationship at that point, and still continues on to this day, as well as Deputy Commissioner Healy who worked with us and who helped us write a couple of our nuisance business bills. So thank you so much for your service. And Northwest Inspector Nick Smith, who does fantastic work. We have a great time working with him. And I also want to shout out the one and only Mighty Massey, as I call her. Deputy Commissioner Massey. Mighty Massey. Mighty Massey, who does a fantastic job. Thank you so much for all that you do. I wanted to just start out with a couple of questions around nuisance businesses. And I wanted -- I know my colleagues started talking about, you know, the work we can do to address them. But I want to look at it from a different angle, which is the fact that we often park a police car in front of these nuisance businesses. And it absolutely drives me insane that it's almost as if these -- some of the worst players in our communities get this level of police protection. And I know that we've talked about it before and we've talked about, you know, pulling a car off could mean that somebody could get, you know, shot, hurt, injured, something. But there's got to be a better, more strategic way that we figure out how do we keep our community safe, and at the same time make sure that we're not giving this level of protection to the cause of the problem often in the community. When that's a card that could be circling the block, making all the neighbors in the community feel safe. Any thoughts on what we can do about that? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I'm going to let Fran --
And also, are we working with L&I? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah.
Because if we know that this is a site where it's going down, you know, is L&I also want that to help. You know, like do something about this business that we know is operating against the, you know, wishes of the community in which the way they operate. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. I'm going to let Fran -- I mean, as he's the orchestrator of a lot of it. But Commissioner Massey and her team have done a phenomenal job last year when, you know, I was just getting on the record. When it relates to commercial corridors, they did 226 sweeps, eight business checks, and they closed down six properties. You know, short dumping with 35 investigations, multiple warrants, and there was a judgment that they were able to obtain working with law for almost $3 million. You know, they made numerous arrests and different nuisances just walking through some of the highlighted, you know, short dumping, you know, and just the activity that's underway in abandoned autos. You know, 8,300 written abandoned autos, I think was almost 11,000 abandoned autos taking off of the streets. Councilman Lozada, 8,881 just in your area alone. And so there has been this very concerted effort to really address this. It was part of the Mayor's charge and part of creating Commissioner Massey's community partnership bureau was to -- I don't mean, bureau, but area was to really focus on this. So we're just getting our feet under to do more of that. I'll let him talk -- Commissioner Healy talk about some of the more granular issues around what we're seeing. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Good morning.
Good morning. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: And thank you for the question. When it comes to the officers you're seeing out there, oftentimes what it may be a result of is actually your legislation. And I say that in a good way. Okay. Because what happened with the 9-4400, we're now getting into abatement plans with a lot of the nuisance locations.
Oh, good. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: And we work with the law department, oftentimes one of the options are is to hire reimbursable overtime details. So that car isn't taking away from the district itself, it's an overtime detail.
Okay. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: So that's one way that we're using the available resources and we're actually holding these individuals accountable. It's actually through the 944 process with your initial bill, as well as Councilmember Phillips amendments, it's been an incredibly valuable tool. We track the first, second and third letters, so we know how we're having an impact at what level. And, quite frankly, a lot of the business owners are actually taking action once they get that first letter. They get that warning. They're stepping up and saying, how can I resolve this? A lot of the resolutions they're coming to is both these abatement plans, and it includes lighting -- whatever it may be, lighting more security gates, whatever the negotiated settlement comes to. And the law department helps us with that.
I've got a couple of nuisance businesses that I'd like to recommend, you know, to be on your radar. Because I mean, some of these places are just -- it's unbelievable some of the activity that's happening. Like right now, I'm going to give you a list. I'm going to write out a list right now and hand it to you. So I'm sorry, Commissioner, did you -- DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: No, no, no. It was this.
Okay. So while I have an extra minute, so a quick question, which is around police cameras. And I know that this is probably not something for the public, but as district members and really at large members, can we get a list of where cameras are? Police cameras are. And when a camera goes offline, can we be alerted to that? So that we can help, you know, in any way possible, funnel resources, provide supports. And also if we have a list, it helps us to, you know, supplement the cameras that you have in place. So, for example, if, let's say, I know that you've got a camera at Broad and Wyoming, which is in my District. You know, maybe I can -- because we have a camera program, too, in which we put cameras on individual houses at people, you know, at the request of the homeowner. And we'll do a block, we'll do two houses, one at one end of the block, one at the other end of the block, and one sort of in the middle to help capture. And, you know -- and it gives the neighbors a sense of security in the community. So is there a way to get that list so that we can help supplement the work that we're doing and also support what you're doing? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, that'd be -- absolutely. We would -- we would love to work with you on that. Our team can work. We do have the capacity, Kevin, if I'm correct, to know when a camera's down. And we -- and we have the resources to be able to repair them relatively quickly. But we would definitely love to work with your office to see how we can --
So when your camera -- if a camera goes down, how quickly do you generally get it back up? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, that's -- we know when it went down now.
So as soon as we can get the BSS clear. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So we have a team that goes out, but we can give you the time. We can provide you with the time from down to getting repaired. It really is going to be predicated on what went down. Some of the stuff times they can do fix it while with not even responding. But we'll have to see. We'll get that information for you.
Okay. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And I do want to -- while, you know, Commissioner Stanford has shared with me as released in the nuisance, there were 123 investigations, 39 letters that were perceived for high risk businesses. So there were, you know, getting underway and starting to use that tool to help us with these issues.
Very brief. Homicides in the 8th District. I ask about every year. One was recently solved, that was the homicide around 15-year-old grad student, Devin Wheaton, who was shot and killed on his way to school. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
Thank you so much -- POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
-- to you and your detectives who worked to solve that case because this was a young man who was on his way to school. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Oh, I was on the scene that day. It was a very tragic situation.
Yes, yes. Also, there are two others among the many that really weigh with me -- weigh on me. And one is Jeremiah Wilcox, who was a 13-year- old shot and killed in front of a bunch of people. He was a student at Wagner Middle School. And there were a lot of people around when he was shot and killed, and that was probably three years ago at least now. And also, of course, Damien Taylor -- POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
-- who was a more recent one. We've talked about extensively the student from Imhotep who was killed at the bus stop. And we know that there have been some other developments that may be related to that. But his family has not reached out. I talked to his -- communicate with his mom every so often and she's still, you know, obviously very much grieving. But any developments that you all might be able to share would be greatly appreciated. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, we appreciate that. And I met with his mother and we even brought her down to the office to talk through as she's still going through her grief, but she wants to turn that into action as well.
Yes. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And how we can support her. And you led that effort to connect us, and I appreciate that.
Thank you. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilman Rue Landau, then Councilmember Jim Harrity, then Councilmember Jeffrey J. Young.
Zeke, do you want to before we go on the second round? Okay. Then Councilmember Thomas.
Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for what you do. Thank you to my colleagues who have been lifting up the names of all of our young people who have been victims in any way to gun violence. It is -- you know, none of us are going to rest until the number is zero. So very happy that it is decreasing, but there's still so much work to do. I wanted to -- I'm the Chair of the Tech Committee, and I wanted to ask some tech questions to you and follow-up on some of my colleagues. The first is just so I'm clear about the whole universe of technology. We are looking at -- we have surveillance cameras, body worn cameras, dash cams, and drones. Is that pretty much it? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: We got a lot of technology, but that's a --
Okay. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: -- right now they're --
The public facing part, I suppose. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
Okay. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, we have LPRs, license plate readers, other as well.
Okay. Did -- do all of these systems feed into the same database? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Well, as it relates to --
Storage or database. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Storage. Yeah. All of our video evidence comes into evidence.com. So an officers day, his body-worn camera is going into what's called evidence.com. That's where those are stored and shared with the District Attorney's Office, the Defender's Office, et cetera. Our body-worn camera, like I said, our Fleet 3, which is our cameras in our cars, comes into that same network. Our drones, camera feed from our drones goes into evidence.com. I think -- the only thing I do think is the city cameras, Kevin, would not be --
If we capture evidence, it goes into evidence.com. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Right. If we capture evidence, then we upload that into evidence.com.
Okay. And how long do we hold the footage in evidence.com and also Fleet 3? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I think it's --
As long as it's in evidence. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: As long as it's evidence, it stays. Unless we're told to take it out. It's considered evidence at that point. So unless we are told to remove it, it stays in there forever.
When we originally started, we were moving the Police Advisory Commission into CPOC, there was a question about storage space and the expense of storage is that we've moved beyond that and we can hold it indefinitely now? POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I believe we have. Yeah. Wait, Kevin's up. Okay.
Yeah. POLICE COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Okay. I'll have Kevin come up and talk to you about -- as we dig deeper into it.
While I'm also asking that question, can I also put out the, who has access to this to this footage? And do we share it with any regional or federal partners?
Yes. My name is Kevin Thomas, Executive Director for Data Analytics and Technology. Evidence.com access our primary evidence repository, which both the police department and the DA's Office has access to. That's for the purpose of evidence. But we also aggregate data into our data warehouse, right. That allows from all our LPRs and any of our other systems within the department. That way we can make those data available for investigators, for police officers, for analysts and the like. So I just wanted to delineate that difference. One is for the purpose of evidence. Right? And in that case, there's really no retention policy because it's still evidence.
The other one, we have -- we have another policy when it comes to retention. So for example, I don't believe -- I think we keep LPR data for a year right now by policy for the purpose of the Genetec camera system, that's 30 days. And a lot of that gets restricted, not so much more because of just the volume of data that has to be managed, but -- so there's -- I just want to delineate those two different things. There's evidence, right, and then there's what we do to aggregate data for the purpose of analysis and investigations.
Okay. And do we share any of that data with regional or federal partners?
Yes. And primarily through the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, which is our Fusion center, where we have multiple federal and state partners present and local partners.
Who are -- do we have policies of when we share it or do they have full access to see this information?
So how we share information is dictated by the by CHRIA or the Criminal History Records Information Act, I believe, which is a state statute. It depends on what the nature of the data is. If it is criminal history information, that's different than if it's investigative information, which is also different than if it's -- if it's intelligence. And each of those different types of information have to be handled in a certain way. But it -- it's all based around whether or not they have a right-to-know or -- and if they have the need-to-know. And those are the two sort of variables that we have to identify before any information is shared. If it's protected information, like intelligence, for example, there actually has to be an audit trail for how that information is disseminated and shared. And that's a requirement by both the feds and the state police.
Okay. I think I understand. So we're make -- I have some drone follow-up questions, too, so I think I got enough there.
Yeah. I'm being generous, but your time -- we're trying to get to a second round.
I know. Let me just follow-up to finish up this piece then. We affirmatively have to make the decision as to whether or not we're sharing it on a right-to-know or need-to-know.
And do -- who does this? Do we have lawyers associated with this as well?
So that's articulated within policy. I mean, and it's also very simple. If it's law enforcement sensitive information that can only be shared with another law enforcement agency, that's the first criteria. Are you a law enforcement agency, for example. The second one for the need-to-know is whether or not that partner is -- is actively -- has an active investigation. So we can't necessarily share information unless we know from that law enforcement partner that they are actively investigating and that data is relevant to that investigation. So that's an example of right-to-know and need-to-know. From an intelligence standpoint, which is where we have the greatest level of protection, that's managed by directive by -- and actually by federal and state policy, by our lead intelligence officer, which is the captain of the criminal intelligence unit. And that person makes that determination about whether or not those are met and ensures that those data are properly logged and accounted for.
Does ICE have access to our cameras without your permission to look for me on the street corner?
No. So it's -- we do not -- we do -- I would have to double check, but my gut reaction is, no, they do not have access to that. And no, they do not have access to really any of our core systems either. If there's a request that comes through the Fusion center, that's handled in a different way. But again, they have to meet that criteria of need-to-know and right- to-know in order to get access to that information.
Okay. Thank you. I'd love a follow-up on that to get the answer.