In Phila., mayors urge action on crime

Something is missing from the presidential campaign, according to many of the nation's mayors and police chiefs: a substantive debate about crime and how best to fight it.

Dozens of them tried to put crime back on the agenda at a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting at the Westin Hotel in Philadelphia yesterday hosted by Mayor Nutter. At a noon news conference, they lamented the decline in federal funding for local crime-fighting programs and urged the national media and Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama to focus on urban violence.

"I understand that Iraq and Afghanistan are extremely important. We all understand that," said Manuel A. Diaz, mayor of Miami and president of the mayors' group. "But there are other things that are important . . . the terrorists that are on our streets that are killing our children. That's very important, too."

Crime was a premier national political issue in the 1990s, when violence was on the rise in cities across the country.

Expensive federal programs such as C.O.P.S., which led to the hiring of tens of thousands (estimates vary between 80,000 and 120,000) of police officers nationwide, transferred billions of dollars from Washington to local governments. In time, the national crime rate dropped dramatically, though many still question whether federal programs made the difference.

Federal help dried up abruptly following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, and mayors and police chiefs have had little success since persuading presidential candidates or Congress to pay much attention to the matter.

During the Democratic presidential primary, Mayor Nutter urged Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to dedicate a forum to urban issues, including violent crime. They demurred. And, as Nutter pointed out again yesterday, crime did not come up once in the ABC News-moderated debate between Clinton and Obama in Philadelphia on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary.

"We're sick and tired of it. These issues must be addressed, and we're going to continue to press them," Nutter said. "I think if the candidates are asked, they will then be forced to respond to these kinds of issues."

The meeting was the first of five sessions the Conference of Mayors has planned in an attempt to come up with a unified urban agenda they will present to the next president.

U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D., Del.), frequently mentioned as a possible Obama running mate, was at the news conference and lent his full support to the mayors' calls for more focus on urban issues. He said he was certain Obama would address crime as the election neared.