PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia police commanders responded to questions and concerns from City Council members at the Police Department budget hearing on Tuesday — touching on curfews, fake tags and license plates and an upgraded forensics center.
The Department is asking for an additional $55.7 million — which includes contractual pay raises and the transfer of dispatchers and crime scene civilian staff to the police payroll — as well as body worn cameras, training and recruitment.
But Council peppered them on a variety of topics, including recent incidents involving kids out past curfew, or rushing the Center City District.
“The question is are they engaged in criminal activity or are they engaged in nuisance behavior. And so for us, it’s identifying the difference between the two,” First Deputy Commissioner John Stanford said.
Philadelphia Police Department budget request
Another question centered on trying to crack down on fake tags and license plates. Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said they’re working at it daily.
“It’s very difficult, because some of them are very good, and they would fool the average person,” Vanore said.
Police officials say they are using a $25 million grant to attract and train new forensic analysts to assist with cases, as they search for a new property to house the crime scene unit.
District attorney vs. police
Council spent part of the hearing trying to establish who is accountable for charging shoplifters with retail theft.
Councilmember Quetcy Lozada told police officials the lack of consequences for retail theft is having a negative effect on residents.
“We are losing businesses in our community as a result of retail theft,” she said.
Lozada and other councilmembers made a similar point last week, when District Attorney Larry Krasner testified and pointed the finger at police.
“When I hear people suggesting that somehow we don’t charge retail theft, feel free to call the Police Department. That is their job,” Krasner said then.
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At Tuesday’s hearing, however, police pushed back, saying the decision to charge someone is up to the district attorney.
Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said, when someone is arrested for theft of anything over $150 dollars in value, which is state law, they write it up and send it to the District Attorney’s Office to be charged.
Police arrested more than 1,500 people for retail theft last year, Vanore said — but the district attorney reduced the charge: “74% of them in 2022 were downgraded to summary offenses. So far this year, we’ve had about 461 [retail thefts], and about 319 were downgraded.”
Vanore added: “The frustration is some of those same people return to the same business within a few short hours and reoffend.”
In 2018, Krasner set a policy to charge an offender with retail theft when the value of the merchandise is greater than $500. For anything less than that, it is essentially counted as a summary offense, which could result in a fine or community service.
Krasner’s spokeswoman said in an email that the office “would need more time to corroborate numbers” but “it’s not inconsistent with general policy guidelines.”
She wrote, in part, “Broadly speaking, the DA's Office is working collaboratively with the PPD and businesses to more quickly identify prolific offenders and offenders who pose safety concerns, with the hope that streamlined information sharing will result in more effective accountability and treatment (when applicable) for all offenders.”
Center City crime down
Even with crime rising in other categories throughout the city, like retail theft, and carjackings, a recent study showed crime in Center City is down.
The Brookings Institute, a nonprofit public policy research group based in Washington, D.C., looked at crime data in New York, Chicago, Seattle and Philadelphia.
In Philadelphia, they focused on the Center City District and say it makes up for about 1% of violence in the entire city, and about 38% of the property crime from 2019 through last year, calling it "remarkably safe."
Commissioner Danielle Outlaw did not testify at the online budget hearing. She is out due to an injury from a car accident last month.
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