PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Nearly 1,100 people have been killed in Philadelphia in the last two years. This year alone, more than 2,300 people have been shot in the city, and the number of homicides continues to climb at a devastating rate: 556 victims this year alone. The city's top cop opened up about a new unit of the Philadelphia Police Department that is focused on targeting shooters — and stopping the bloodshed.
The department has confiscated nearly 6,000 crime guns from the streets of Philadelphia. These are guns that have been used in a crime or are suspected of having been used in a crime, and guns that are illegal to possess. However, the city's gun violence crisis continues to surge, and the department’s solve rate for non-fatal shooting and homicide cases is at about 20%.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw says that figure is nowhere near where she would like it to be, and she described a new investigative strategy developed in the last year to increase their solve rate for non-fatal crimes.
Through the past year, police top brass have been meeting regularly with prosecutors from the district attorney's office to comb through nearly 2,500 gun arrests to discuss how cases could be strengthened and to open up communication.
"It allows us to share — maybe we have more background information about the individual or the groups or whatever it is — and we provide that content or context for them. But then also, in turn, if they're asking for more analysis or [more evidence], we can tell them why that's a great idea or why that can be challenging for us," Outlaw said.
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The DA's office has either convicted or plead-out about 60% of the cases. As for the rest of the department's non-fatal shooting cases, they either end up in acquittals (about 4%), or are withdrawn by the district attorney's office or dismissed by a judge.
Outlaw says she remains focused on curbing gun violence, so the department has created a "non-fatal shooting team," led by a captain with about a dozen supervisors (four lieutenants and eight sergeants) and 15 detectives, all focused on shooting investigations.
She said the unit will work day and night shifts to close the gap on shootings that happen after hours, with direct communication to the district attorney's office.
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"This is aligning, this is centralizing. This is ensuring that we're focused, all of the resources are centralized and in one place," she said.
"When you have everyone working these shootings in the same place, you are right there. You are communicating with each other, and pick up on trends and patterns easier. You have analysts assigned to you that's sharing this information with you. That's why alignment and centralization is so important," she said.
"Everybody is utilizing the high-end technology now available to [the Homicide Unit], enhanced forensics capabilities, and an assigned person through the DA's office. So it's the laser focus that our homicides get, that the non-fatal shootings would be getting."
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Communication is key, she said, and this will be enhanced communication. Having these law enforcement components housed together will improve their ability to share resources and communicate in real time — "as opposed to someone stumbling upon 'Hey, this is similar to this,'" Outlaw said.
The hope for this centralized investigative unit, she said, is to use the patterns they find and the neighborhood conflicts they learn about to prevent potential bloodshed.
The new unit is expected to kick off by the end of February or the beginning of March.
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