Residents question priorities of new anticrime plan

Kevin Hannah pored over the new Philadelphia police commissioner's crime-fighting plan last week, fruitlessly searching for evidence that his embattled South Philadelphia neighborhood might get more patrol officers.

"I thought it was a typo. Why aren't we in there?" said Hannah, president of the 17th Police District Advisory Council, a panel of anticrime activists in the district west of Broad Street.

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, who released his plan on Jan. 30, identified nine high-crime districts where he wants to shift 200 officers to patrol duty. The 17th District, which includes Point Breeze and Grays Ferry, was not among the chosen few.

The nine districts Ramsey selected for special attention are some of the city's most populous and account for nearly two-thirds of Philadelphia's homicides.

But six less-populous police districts - including the 17th - have higher crime rates than some of the districts Ramsey wants to target, according to an Inquirer analysis of the Police Department's 2007 crime statistics. Crime rates provide analysts a way to compare the number of offenses among areas with different populations - the higher the rate, the greater the likelihood someone in those areas will be a victim of a crime.

Four of the districts Ramsey chose have better-than-average violent-crime rates - the city average is 1,456 incidents per 100,000 residents. They are the 14th District in Northwest Philadelphia, the 35th District straddling Broad Street in the north, and the 18th and 19th Districts in West Philadelphia. They include some of the city's most stable neighborhoods: Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy, West Oak Lane, Wynnefield, University City.

Conversely, six districts that reported some of the worst violent-crime rates last year did not make the commissioner's list: the Sixth District, which includes eastern Center City and North Philadelphia; the 16th District, including Mantua and Powelton in West Philadelphia; the 23d District in North Philadelphia; the 24th and 26th Districts, encompassing Kensington, Fishtown and Port Richmond; and the 17th.

"I don't know who made this decision," Hannah said. "We are definitely going to talk about this at our next council meeting."

Ramsey's chosen districts combined account for 55 percent of the city's population. Consequently, they have the highest number of violent crimes. And it is the total number of crimes that Ramsey is focused on reducing.

In his crime plan, Ramsey hopes to dramatically push crime down this year. He wants to reduce homicides by 25 percent and violent crime by 20 percent - 100 fewer killings and 4,000 fewer violent crimes in 2008. Violent crimes include homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

"You'd be hard-pressed to say none of the nine deserves to be in there," Ramsey said in an interview last week.

"What I care about is having an impact on crime in the city. And it's hard to argue with the fact that collectively, combined, [the nine districts] account for 65 percent of murders, 64 percent of the shootings, about 59 percent of aggravated assaults, and 55 percent of robberies. Hard to argue that. If we have an impact on that, we have an impact citywide."

Crime totals are not the only factor that affected Ramsey's decision. There are district staffing concerns, such as injuries or anticipated retirements. And the crime rates used in The Inquirer's analysis do not reflect trends or seasonal crime spikes that may alarm district commanders.

"We were just looking at it for the number of people they have working now, the kind of violence they have to deal with, which districts would need that extra infusion to have a huge impact on their violent crime - that's what we looked at," Ramsey said. "It's not a perfect science."

Ramsey said 14 districts not selected for the added troops won't be shortchanged.

"It's not that we're not doing anything in the other districts. . . . We'll be giving them overtime. We'll be doing a lot of things to beef up patrol strength. We're not taking anybody away from there."

Pam Pendleton-Smith, a Yorktown Community Association activist who attended one of Ramsey's town hall meetings last month, said yesterday she was not worried that the 23d District where she lives will not receive added patrols, even though it has the city's highest violent-crime rate.

"I embrace the commissioner's strategy to mitigate crime," said Pendleton-Smith, who read the plan last week. She said she regarded Ramsey's strategy as the "first step" and thinks he should be given an opportunity to carry it out.

According to The Inquirer's analysis, few of the city's 23 districts can rest on their laurels.

Only two districts - the Fifth in Northwest Philadelphia and the Seventh in Northeast Philadelphia - have violent-crime rates below the national average of 473 incidents per 100,000 people, as reported by the FBI in 2006, the latest national figures.

And only three - the Fifth, the Seventh and the Ninth in Center City and Fairmount - have homicide rates better than the national average of 5.7 per 100,000 people.

"The whole city has problems with violent crime," Ramsey said. "You've got to start somewhere."

Ramsey said he anticipated that some neighborhoods may feel overlooked.

"I'm not a miracle worker," he said. "I have to work with the resources I have. But I promise people, I'm focused on the entire city of Philadelphia, not just nine districts."

For more coverage, including an interactive homicide map, visit http://go.philly.com/violence

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