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Showing charts, pictures and a map, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw detailed to City Council that shootings are up more than 40% and homicides are up more than 30%, while the department is taking more guns off the street — nearly 3,000 so far this year — with fewer pedestrian stops.
“The majority of all our crime guns recovered that had tracing data for the source can be linked to Pennsylvania, and that’s 73%,” Outlaw explained.
She said 16% are from other states, mostly Virginia and Georgia.
“Here’s what’s also of note, and this is why I say we all acknowledge, including us, that there is more to be done, specifically on our part: that trend line is our clearance rates and our corresponding clearance rates are declining slowly,” she said.
Outlaw noted it needs to be better, telling council they need funds for advanced technology, a point District Attorney Larry Krasner agreed with, specifying the need for DNA and cell phone forensic analysis tools.
“We need to support our Philadelphia Police Department by giving them one way or another, the $2 to $5 million they need for the first year and the $2 to $3 million they need for years after that,” he said.
Krasner pointed to judges and bail commissioners rejecting high bails for some defendants.
“What we wanted was enough bail to keep people who are running around shooting people and trying to kill people and who were felons in possession of a firearm in jail, because they present tremendous danger to public safety. We did not get it 89% of the time, we got it 7% of the time,” he said.
Both the commissioner and the DA said they want their entities to work better and smarter together.
Another hearing will be held Tuesday with officials from the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and supervising judges.