Rep. Perzel says Democrats stall bill to add police

HARRISBURG - Citing rampant crime in cities from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, Republican State Rep. John Perzel yesterday urged his Democratic colleagues to start debate on his bill to add 10,000 police officers across the state.

The measure has been stuck in the House Appropriations Committee since October, said Perzel, who blamed the "shifting priorities" of his Democratic colleagues for the delay.

Democrats control the House of Representatives by a single vote.

"We're trying to make sure they focus in on one priority, and that's helping the people of Pennsylvania not have to worry about crime in their communities," Perzel (R., Phila.), the former House speaker, said yesterday morning, flanked by about two dozen colleagues and representatives of the law enforcement community.

The bill would provide $56 million to help local police departments hire new officers by 2011. That money would be delivered to municipalities through grants, with the municipalities matching up to 50 percent of those funds.

When the legislation was first introduced in the fall of 2006, Gov. Rendell said it was too expensive. Yesterday, Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said the governor's position "remains the same - it's a great idea, but budgetary constraints make it difficult."

Under Perzel's proposal, municipalities that employ fewer than 20 police officers would have first priority for grants, followed by those employing between 20 and 100 officers; those with the highest percentage of total crimes reported statewide; and those with the largest population.

Philadelphia would stand to get about 1,350 officers under the plan. Still, some in the city and other municipalities have questioned whether, in times of tight budgets, police departments have the money to pay for added manpower.

Republicans yesterday held the bill up as an alternative to several gun-control measures being pushed by some Democrats, and led by those from Philadelphia and its suburbs.

Two of those measures, including one that would have limited gun purchases to one a month, are effectively dead.

"We can spend the next two years, as we have the past two, debating how we can further impair the rights of law-abiding citizens to own firearms for recreational purposes," said Rep. Steven Cappelli (R., Lycoming). "Or we can do what this bill recommends: reverse the tide where our departments are outmanned and outgunned."

Joe Grace, executive director of Ceasefire PA, said that police officers across the state have overwhelmingly supported the push for gun-control measures, and that "we need more commonsense gun legislation. We hope Rep. Perzel and others see the need for that."

In Philadelphia last year, violent crime overall dropped 8 percent, while the homicide rate dropped 3 percent. In 2007, there were 392 homicides, 14 fewer than in 2006, when the city hit a 10-year high.

Johnna Pro, spokeswoman for Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.), who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said Perzel's bill is "poorly written," and that giving priority to small departments would not put police in places that are experiencing the most crime.

"We support the concept of more police on the street," Pro said. "But this bill, even conservatively speaking, still falls tens of millions of dollars short of providing adequate funding."