Chester mayor ups reward cash, hires cops amid surge of killings

Amid a surge of homicides since the start of the year, Chester Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland announced Monday that the struggling city had doubled a reward pot to lure reluctant witnesses and was hiring more police officers after losing a quarter of its force to belt-tightening.

At a news conference with Police Commissioner Otis Blair, Kirkland said the $10,000 reward pot comes a year after a $5,000 offer yielded no tips that led to convictions. Chester's unsolved homicide rate is among the highest in the nation.

The Police Department also in recent weeks has promoted and hired new officers after nearly one out of every four of its most veteran officers and investigators retired or resigned in 2016 rather than work under a less-generous contract their union negotiated with the cash-strapped city.

Already, since Jan. 1 seven homicides have been reported in Chester; for all of 2016, the total was 26.

Blair said the retirements, which he had thought would happen over five years, had left fewer -- and newer -- law enforcement officers on the streets of Delaware County's only city.

"The mass retirements, yes, have affected our strategy to policing this community," Kirkland said at a news conference at police headquarters after a City Council meeting a week earlier, during which community members called for radical action.

At the start of Kirkland's first term, in January 2016, the Police Department had 98 members. That dropped to 75 after retirements and resignations catalyzed by the cost-cutting contract.

It has risen to 85 in the last few weeks. The department recently promoted seven officers to detective and hired eight top recruits from a recent Philadelphia Police Academy class, Kirkland said.

The mayor and his commissioner urged patience as they try to rebuild the force while the city remains under state oversight due to its fiscal distress. The city has a 34.6 percent poverty rate, among the highest in Pennsylvania.

"We will not just throw people into a position to fill a void," Kirkland said.

"Unfortunately," Blair said,  "things don't happen overnight."

Kirkland, elected in November 2015, ran for mayor on a crime-fighting platform, but the homicide total during his first year in office was an increase over the 23 in 2015.

For years, the department has struggled to solve its most violent crimes. Police have closed only about one-third of Chester's 323 slayings since 2000, among the lowest rates in the nation.  

One reason, authorities say, is the "don't snitch" street culture in which witnesses won't come forward. To try to counter that, Kirkland last year created the $5,000 reward pot. But the reward money had no takers.

"We're asking that the community begin to look in their own households, at their own family members," Kirkland said Monday in announcing the reward had doubled. "If you have a family member whom you know or suspect of being involved in criminal activity, please, please, please step up and speak up."

"Police work only goes so far without the public," Blair said.

The results of a U.S. Justice Department review of the Police Department, conducted at the request of city leaders, are expected in the next few months.

In the next several weeks, a report is due on the efficacy of police body cameras, which have been in use for about six months under a pilot program.

On Thursday, the mayor will hold two roundtable discussions with authorities to brainstorm on tactical solutions to the city's crime problems.