“What we’re trying to chip away at is a culture of violence,” said Commissioner Danielle Outlaw about year-over-year reductions in gun violence in some Philadelphia police districts.
October 22, 2021 – By Anna Orso, Dylan Purcell and Chris Palmer – Source The Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw on Wednesday touted what she called some encouraging measures of progress in her department’s efforts to reduce gun violence in the city.
During a news conference with Mayor Jim Kenney, Outlaw pointed to year-over-year reductions in gun violence in some police districts, including Fishtown, South Philadelphia, and Northwest Philadelphia.
But she conceded such measures have come as the city continues to experience its highest level of gun violence in at least 30 years — and on a pace to set an all-time record for homicides in a year.
An Inquirer analysis shows that despite some pockets of promise, shootings are up in most of the city’s police districts compared to last year. The figures are even more stark when comparing violence levels to earlier years — shootings are up in 18 of the city’s 21 police districts when compared to 2019. In some districts, the pace has doubled.
Outlaw said she understands year-to-date improvements in portions of the city may not be encouraging for residents who live among persistent gunfire. But “a win is a win is a win,” she said.
“Wherever there’s positive information, or an opportunity to show that either something is working, or people are hard at work, we got to give people their kudos,” she said. “It’s not going to happen overnight … What we’re trying to chip away at is a culture of violence.”
Her comments Wednesday echoed testimony she delivered last week to City Council, when she spotlighted some gains in the midst of otherwise grim trends.
Shootings citywide are currently 8% higher than at the same point last year, and homicides are up 14%, with 441 killings in Philadelphia in 2021. The city has only reached that tally in a year three other times since the 1970s. The vast majority of this year’s slayings have been committed with guns.
Gun violence has been concentrated in just a handful of neighborhoods and several dozen blocks
The figures the department highlighted show double-digit percentage drops in shooting victims and homicides in several police districts. A similar analysis by The Inquirer found that in six districts the department highlighted — the 1st, 12th, 14th, 15th, 17th and 26th — there were 18% fewer shooting victims this year compared to the same point in 2020. That amounts to 89 fewer victims.
But those districts — which cover neighborhoods in Northwest Philadelphia, South Philadelphia and some stretches along the Delaware River — account for just 22% of all shootings year-to-date in the city. Gun violence in the rest of the districts does not show the same progress, with shootings up by 19% everywhere else — an additional 235 shooting victims compared to the same time last year.
Even in some of the districts Outlaw singled out, rates of violence are still significantly higher than they were in years before 2020, one of the most violent years on record.
Consider the 26th police district, which encompasses Fishtown and parts of Kensington. Outlaw pointed to a 42% drop in homicides year-over-year and a slight uptick in shootings. In the district, 54 people have been shot this year compared to 52 at this time last year.
But the 54 people shot this year is still higher than in any year since 2015, and more than double the amount of people shot in the same district in all of 2016.
Shootings have also increased year-over-year in most of the districts in North Philadelphia. Five districts, where shootings are up 17%, account for more than half of the people shot so far this year citywide.
Outlaw said despite the citywide trends, the department’s three-year-old patrol strategy is working. Under the plan, which was dubbed “Operation Pinpoint” when it rolled out in 2019, commanders target resources in areas across the city where data shows violent crime is most likely to occur.
That plan expanded to 45 zones last year, and there are pinpoint spots located in every district in the city. She said the strategy includes officer deployment, tracking of repeat offenders, and increased collaboration with other law enforcement agencies.
But, she said, for the department’s strategies to work, “we have to have the resources that we need to do it.”
Police brass have repeatedly told city officials that a wave of retirements has left hundreds of vacancies in the department, and that, like agencies across the country, they’re struggling to attract new officers.
Recruiting efforts, Outlaw told Council last week, have been hampered by mandates, including a rule that all new hires be vaccinated against COVID-19, and a new law requiring municipal workers to have lived in the city for a year prior to being hired.
“We don’t have the same resources that we had a year ago,” she said. “And quite frankly, another reason why I share positive information we have, is to let people know that we’re still making do with what we have the best we can.”
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