PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — During a press conference Wednesday with Philadelphia’s mayor and police commissioner, officials pointed to a slight downward trend in shootings and homicides over the past few weeks.
Since the beginning of July, homicides have been decreasing weekly, from 14 killings in the first week to six last week. Overall shootings have also reduced.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said they ramped up patrols in problem spots.
"We have been flooding areas where we have been having the most problems, through the use of data," said Outlaw.
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"Bolstering areas in our pinpoint grids as needed, whether that’s through foot beats or stationary beats, enhancing or adding capacity to the task forces that existed, partnering with federal partners and other partners whether through warrant sweeps."
Mayor Jim Kenney said he is cautiously optimistic and called the trend a glimmer of hope.
"We are encouraged by trends. We may have a bad weekend, we may have a bad couple of days, which is not 'mission accomplished,'" he said.
"This is a hopeful trend that we can continue to to feed and make sure things go in the right direction. But we may be sitting here in a few weeks talking about a couple bad nights."
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