PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia city controller Rebecca Rhynhart is calling for a complete reorganization of the police department after a study by her office showed inadequate staffing, outdated technology and a lack of monitoring and oversight of important programs.
The police budget of $727 million is the largest of any city department. Rhynhart announced in February that she would examine how efficiently it’s spent, at the request of a group of City Council members.
“There needs to be significant operational revamping of the police department,” said Rhynhart. “To better provide the core mission of public safety across our city, and to better support our officers who have an incredibly hard job to do every day.”
She enlisted residents to serve as advisors and hired three outside firms.
Rhynhart says that at any given time, there are at most 22 officers available in a police district. Sometimes the number is as low as 11.
She says this is due to a number of factors: 500 vacant positions because attrition has outpaced recruitment, hundreds of officers are out on disability and hundreds more performing are jobs that could be done by civilians.
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“Out of approximately 6,000 officers, only 2,500 are available for patrol,” said Rhynhart.
She says it’s fixable, though. Rhynhart recommends getting better recruitment, civilianizing some jobs, cracking down on abuse of leave time and tailoring staffing and spending to the needs of each community. And Council has been urging the administration to make those civilian jobs and put more officers on the street.
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“This will involve major organizational change,” said Rhynhart.
Other recommendations include evaluating Operation Pinpoint — the department’s main crime-fighting strategy — to make sure it’s working correctly and updating technology for more efficiency.
The city has taken similar steps before. Years ago, Council approved the creation of a separate force of non-sworn employees to direct traffic.
She said the most disturbing finding was major disparity in 911 response times between mostly white communities and mostly black and brown communities. She didn’t speculate on a cause, but said it must be fixed.
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“Where you live should not affect how fast police respond,” said Rhynhart.
A police spokesman says the department participated in the report and views it as an opportunity to look deeper into staff and resource allocation.
However, the PPD didn’t agree with all the findings.
In the index of the report itself, Commissioner Outlaw noted that the department has already started civilianizing some jobs and is in the process of reviewing its technology. She also said the department is about to launch a specialized unit to address behavioral health calls.
Changes of duties have to be worked out with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5.