PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council members explored strategies for violence reduction on Tuesday in an unlikely place: Outside their own city limits in the City of Chester.
Chester officials and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer laid out the elements of their Partnerships for Safe Neighborhoods, a program they credit with helping to reduce homicides by 63% this year.
Chester was considered one of the most dangerous small cities in America before launching “Partnership,” which is based on group violence intervention, or GVI, which Philadelphia has also begun using.
The takeaway for Philadelphia Council President Darrell Clarke is that it takes teamwork in law enforcement.
"The bottom line is people have to work together. For real," said Clarke.
"They have the same tools, but a very different level of cooperation between the partners," Councilman Curtis Jones noted.
Stollsteimer, who said his program has had "great results" using GVI in the 20 months of his tenure, zeroed in on what he perceived as a possible obstacle: His Philadelphia counterpart, Larry Krasner.
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"I’ve never heard from anybody in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office. I’ve never received a return phone call from the district attorney on any issue I’ve tried to call him about," said Stollsteimer.
"He quit our professional organization. He’s not a member of the district attorney’s organization, so we don’t share common strategies for regional problems. It’s very frustrating for those of us who are district attorneys in the suburbs that we don’t have a relationship with the district attorney of the largest municipality in our region.”
The council members said they didn’t want to point fingers, adding they have no control over independently-elected officials. But they said they will continue to work on getting everyone behind Philadelphia’s GVI efforts.
Krasner says he believes in partnering with stakeholders to solve gun violence. In an email to KYW Newsradio, a spokesman said Krasner would have attended today’s event in Chester, if he had been invited.
The district attorney is a crucial part of group violence intervention because it is a carrot-and-stick approach, with resources for those who abandon crime, but swift and sure prosecution for those who don’t.
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