PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Though gun violence continues to plague the city, the numbers have declined a bit from the prior year. More than 1,600 people were shot in the city in 2023 — about 375 of them fatally. Violent crime across Philadelphia is down about 7%, and police say they took about 6,000 guns off the street.
“I think it is a good indication that we are moving in a positive direction. I don’t think it is the norm to see any city drop 100 homicides in one year,” said interim Police Commissioner John Stanford.
He says they are trying to chip away at the city’s gun violence.
“Shooting victims are down 27%,” he said. That’s almost 600 fewer people shot in the city over the past year.
Stanford says the clearance — or solve — rate for homicides jumped a bit to about 60%, but for victims who were shot and injured: only about ⅓ of cases were solved.
“Our shooting clearance rate is 28%,” he said. “Still working to increase both of those numbers but have to tip our hat off to the investigators that have been working diligently on bringing in the people responsible for homicides and those who are responsible for shootings.”
He says communication between investigators working the cases and boots on the ground has been key — “both in solving some of these cases and clearing some of these cases but also in helping to prevent future incidents by trying to get in front of any type of retaliatory incidents we could possibly see.”
Stanford says the number of officers in the department are at a deficit, there are about 800 open spots.
“To see that we are making significant progress considering that we are down in staffing, it just is a testament to the dedication of everyone involved, and everyone committed to reducing gun violence in this city.”
There were about 30% fewer carjackings than in 2022, but car thefts were up more than 70%. About 23,000 cars were stolen in Philadelphia in 2023.
“We recovered 20,000 vehicles. Our folks are recovering vehicles just about the same rate that they are being stolen,” Stanford said.
He said most of the cars were found fairly quickly, and thieves mostly took the stolen cars on joyrides — “and then you have some folks that are stealing vehicles to commit other crimes.”
Retail theft was up about 27% from this time a year ago, he said.
Stanford credits community groups with helping to intervene in some of the issues on the streets. He will continue his career with the department, after Kevin Bethel is sworn in as the city’s new commissioner on Tuesday.