PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia police officers took more guns off the street in 2021 than ever before in the city's history, according to Police Department reports, yet shootings and homicides soared to record levels this year.
This year is the city's deadliest on record. The number of Philadelphia homicides in 2021 topped that of the previous record-holding year, 1990, when the city counted 500 victims. 2020 saw another 500 homicides. But in 2021, the number of homicide victims hade already passed 500 as the city was breaking for Thanksgiving.
"I cannot understate the damage that this loss has inflicted on the community, and our officers, quite frankly," said Commissioner Danielle Outlaw.
Compared to last year, the number of women who died by homicide doubled. About 2,000 other people were shot but survived. More than five-dozen victims were children or teens, and Outlaw routinely spoke about the heartbreak she felt about that fact.
"No parent or loved one should have to go through the agonizing pain of burying their child," she said. "And our children should not be experiencing this continued and sustained trauma, in the way that they have been."
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Outlaw says her department noticed a disturbing trend in arrests this year: Officers are arresting more young people — teens — for gun possession cases.
"We are seeing our victims and our suspects, or offenders, being younger and younger," she said.
And yet, officers took about 6,000 guns off city streets this year. About 10% of them were ghost guns, or privately made firearms. City-sponsored gun buybacks netted nearly 800 weapons alone — pistols, rifles and glocks — turned in with no questions asked.
Authorities consistently pointed to three main motives throughout the year for the ongoing gun violence: arguments, drugs and domestic assaults.
"We are up 106% in domestics," Deputy Commissioner Joel Dales said.
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Through the year, Mayor Jim Kenney continued to point to easy access to illegal guns as the main reason for the rise in shootings and homicides.
"There are people making money selling these guns, making these guns, and the Legislature — not the people behind me — don’t care. They don’t care how many people get killed," Kenney said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro spoke in Philadelphia on several occasions, echoing the same sentiment.
"Data also shows that shootings just here in Philadelphia have been disproportionally clustered in the city’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods," Wolf said.
"There are simply too many people that we are picking up, with weapons, out on irresponsibly low bail," said Shapiro.
"We all deserve a safe and secure Philadelphia, and we are going to do everything in our power to make that a reality," vowed Outlaw.
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She points to the district attorney, accusing him and his office of not holding offenders accountable.
"We have people in the community that say, 'I know I will be out again. I know I can get away with this,'" Outlaw said. "I mean, it’s almost a mockery."
But by the end of the year, D.A. Larry Krasner said getting guns off the streets of Philadelphia is his No. 1 priority.
"If you point a gun at another human being and pull the trigger, you have made a decision that there is going to be a reckoning," Krasner said.
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