Public is giving Ramsey an earful

For Philadelphia's new police commissioner, no introductory tour of the city would have been complete without hearing from the vocal supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

During one of four public meetings last week, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey on Thursday listened in stony silence inside North Philadelphia's William Penn High School as a parade of supporters of the convicted killer of Officer Daniel Faulkner denounced the Police Department for alleged brutality, repression and disrespect.

He finally broke his silence after a white supporter of Abu-Jamal's stood up to complain that police behavior was designed to drive minorities out of gentrifying neighborhoods. Ramsey, an African American, suggested to the woman that if she "truly cared about black people" she would cease the rhetoric and "offer some positive suggestions."

"These officers get out here every day, put their lives on the line, and try to save folks like you, and it ought to be appreciated," he said to hoots from some in the audience. "That doesn't mean we're not without some fault in some instances. Nothing is perfect."

In his brief education of Philadelphia, that dustup with the activists was perhaps the most dramatic demonstration that relations between police and the community are fragile and that improving them will be one of his biggest challenges.

The former Washington police chief said he was not surprised by the complaints he heard during the four nightly sessions, conducted in the department's South, Central, East and Northeast Divisions. Though some members of the public rose to praise police actions or popular commanders, many expressed frustration with allegations of slow response times, unanswered calls, abuse by officers, and rude 911 operators.

"I had the same issue in D.C.," Ramsey said in an interview. He said the public's dissatisfaction was "unacceptable."

Ramsey, who will conduct two final town-hall meetings this week in Wynnefield and in East Germantown, has until Jan. 30 to submit a plan for fighting crime to Mayor Nutter.

The broad sweep of Ramsey's plan is no secret. He wants to put more of the department's 6,600 officers on patrol to increase visibility, and he wants more emphasis on community policing to improve civilian cooperation with the police.

The commissioner projected a tough but compassionate figure at the public meetings, telling audiences that the department had to do a better job of responding to its "customers" while taking a hard stand against criminals.

To a speaker at Monday's session in South Philadelphia who asked if Ramsey supported crime-prevention programs in schools, he responded:

"I believe it's got to be a multipronged approach - you've got to deal with prevention, intervention, and all the long-term things," he said. "But in the meantime, we have a lot of thugs out there on the street who need to be locked up, and we can't ignore that part of the problem."

To speakers who suggested the city take more intrusive measures - install cameras in classrooms, test students for drugs, or record the identities of everyone who buys a drink in a bar to help find witnesses should violence break out - Ramsey suggested the public would hesitate before casually giving up privacy.

He said he would ask only for a "state of emergency," which would limit public gatherings and curtail other activities, in the event that crime spiked.

"It should be the criminals who really feel the difference," he said, rather than law-abiding citizens.

Except for Thursday in North Philadelphia, Ramsey and Nutter - who appeared at all four meetings - were greeted warmly by audiences ranging from 200 to 600 people.

With only a week under his belt, Ramsey faced some tough questions regarding the two fatal shootings of civilians last weekend by police. He urged audiences to suspend judgment while the shootings are investigated.

"I've been in big cities before," he said in an interview. "You deal with the problems as they come up. . . . I was hoping to get more of a honeymoon than five days."

The demands for better services were many - more police on foot patrols, more streetlights, more traffic enforcement. Ramsey said he would consider restarting the Mounted Unit, disbanded by Nutter's predecessor, John Street. He declared his support for more surveillance cameras on the streets.

He did not mince words. To a speaker in the Northeast who suggested that 911 service would be more cordial if police officers replaced civilian dispatchers, Ramsey disagreed.

"The clear answer's just no. The issue there is professionalism. The operator ought to treat you with respect."

He suggested that people who believe they have been mistreated by a dispatcher file complaints because the 911 calls are recorded.

If anything, Ramsey said, he wants more jobs now done by officers to be "civilianized" so he can put more officers on patrol.

Affluent residents tended to complain about "quality of life" issues - trash, vandalism, prostitutes, juvenile rowdiness, graffiti.

In struggling neighborhoods, the hardships were more dramatic - shootings, streetside drug dealing, robberies.

A common thread was the unrelenting sense that somebody else in some other neighborhood was getting better service and more respect.

Lissette Rivera-Hepp, who came with two young children in strollers and her husband, complained about increasingly ominous signs in East Fairmount - car vandalism, and discarded condoms and needles in the street.

"You've mentioned a lot of things that really drive people out of the city," Ramsey said, "because it's those kinds of things that create an environment where you don't want to raise your kids. . . . No problem's too small for us to deal with."

With a battery of commanders at each meeting, Ramsey was able to deliver some immediate satisfaction.

Doris Saunder said she got phone calls Thursday from a deputy commissioner and a detective after she complained the night before at a public meeting in West Kensington that police no longer returned her calls seeking information on the unsolved 2005 murder of her daughter, Chakia.

"It's so sad," she said. "It's like the whole city is putting its hope on this one man, the new commissioner."

Christine Savage, block captain on the 3100 block of North 13th Street, complained that she and her neighbors had repeatedly called police to report open drug activity and received a delayed or no response.

"Every time we ask for a meeting with somebody down at the 25th District, we never get it," she said.

Ramsey instructed the district commander to set up an appointment.

Eric Eaddy, a homeowner in the West Poplar Nehemiah Homes in North Philadelphia, complained that rowdy bar patrons remained on the street after a neighborhood club closed, disturbing slumbering homeowners. In Center City, Eaddy said, police would force such patrons to disperse.

"I hope I don't have to be up here in another five years saying the same thing," Eaddy said. "We're kind of frustrated, fed up. What are we supposed to do? Take back to the streets? Then you'll lock me up, and we have families. God has blessed us with some new homes, and we can't even live right."

"I hear what you're saying," Ramsey said, jotting notes on a legal pad. "I'll see to it we get on that. . . . You won't have to wait five years."

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has two public meetings scheduled this week:

Tuesday, 7 p.m.: Pinn Memorial Baptist Church, 2251 N. 54th St.

Wednesday, 7 p.m.: Martin Luther King High School, Stenton Avenue and Haines Street.

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