City didn’t move on all commission recommendations

EXPERIENCE and common sense ought to spare the city of Philadelphia from ever facing another situation remotely like its confrontation with MOVE 25 years ago.

But never say never.

Mayor Wilson Goode appointed a commission to investigate the disaster and "make suggestions for future handling of similar situations." After a nine-month probe, the panel issued a scathing report with 38 recommendations for change in the structure and operation of city government.

Kevin Tucker, the recently retired chief of the Secret Service in Philadelphia, took over the Police Department from Gregore Sambor. Tucker was the first commissioner from outside the department since the 1920s, and he began implementing change almost immediately, addressing the MOVE Commission's concerns and other problems.

Probably the most important recommendation from the commission: a top-to-bottom review of police operations.

"The appointment of a new Police Commissioner provides a timely opportunity for a comprehensive review, utilizing outside experts, of the overall operations of the Philadelphia Police Department, with particular reference to coordination with other city departments, command structure, training, specialized units such as the 'bomb squad,' professional relationships with other governmental public safety agencies and relationships with the public," the MOVE Commission report said.

Tucker appointed a police study task force and used it as a springboard for a new focus on community policing and training at all levels.

Neighborhood advisory councils were created throughout the city, along with police mini-stations, residential foot patrols and officers assigned to crime prevention and victim assistance.

Dozens of police commanders were sent to Harvard management seminars; dozens more got management training from local corporations, and Tucker revamped the curriculum at the Police Academy in the Northeast.

The MOVE Commission suggested creation of a public-safety board to include the mayor, managing director, City Council president, district attorney and other high-ranking city officials.

That didn't happen. Nor did the commission's recommendation that the mayor name a top aide as a full-time liaison to the Police Department.

But Mayor Nutter has gone halfway, with the appointment of Everett Gilison, deputy mayor for public safety, whose portfolio includes the police, fire and prison departments and emergency management.

The MOVE Commission was appalled at the lack of coordination among the departments involved in the MOVE disaster, the near-absence of strategic or emergency planning.

"The whole world of public safety and emergency response has dramatically changed since 1985," said Maryann Tierney, now the city's deputy managing director for emergency operations.

The city now has shelves full of emergency plans, addressing different sorts of crises, from mass casualties to sheltering to evacuations.

"It's a matter of taking the systems you have and leveraging them to whatever emergency you're faced with," said Tierney, 32, who worked for New York City's Office of Emergency Management through the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

"The whole [emergency-management] system has changed," said Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers. "There is close coordination now between all the city agencies, communication with everyone."