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March 8, 2000
Hon. John Street
Mayor City of Philadelphia
City Hall
Philadelphia, PA
Dear Mayor Street:
It is my honor to submit to you the attached Report of your transition Committee on Public Safety. On behalf of my fellow members of your Committee, let me express our appreciation for the opportunity you have given us to address key issues face the future of our City. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues with you, and convey our very best wishes for the success of your leadership in making Philadelphia a safer and better city.
Sincerely,
Lawrence W. Sherman
Lead Co- Chair
Public Safety Transition
City of Philadelphia
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Honorable John Street Mayor
Transition Team
Public Safety Committee
Report March 7, 2000
Lawrence W. Sherman, Lead Co- Chair
Steven Cozen, Co- Chair
Eleanor Dezzi, Co- Chair
Will Gonzalez, Co- Chair
Ernest Morris, Co- Chair
Bill Bergman
Marilyn Bradley
Brian Gordon
Ellen Greenlee
David Kairys
Carol Keck
Tsiwen Law
Marsha Levick
Marta Luz-Diaz
Greg Miller
James Mills
Samlen Nol
Maureen Rush,
Members
Marta Dias
Brandy Gormas
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Jason Mayland
Ken Murphy
Tony Nazzarano
Francisco Roman
Dorothy Sander,
Consultants
CONTENTS
Introduction..................................................... p. 1
Executive Summary................................................ p. 1
Police.................................................... p. 2
Courts.................................................... p. 4
Corrections............................................... p. 4
Fire Control.............................................. p. 6
Criminal Justice System................................... p. 7
Subcommittee Membership....................................................... p. 7
Additional
Reports.......................................................... p. 8
Courts Sub- Committee
PARS (Pre- Arraignment Reporting System) Memo and
Letter of Courts Subcommittee
Fire Control Subcommittee
Corrections Subcommittee
Police Commissioner's Transition Memo
INTRODUCTION
This report addresses Mayor Street's mandate to consider how Philadelphians can improve their sense of safety in all areas and neighborhoods of the city. The committee appreciates Mayor Street's strong support for crime prevention efforts of all kinds, wherever they may be mounted across city government, from blight reduction and neighborhood revitalization to early childhood services and after- school programs, parks and drug treatment. Given the focus of other transition team committees on prevention
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efforts outside the criminal justice and fire prevention systems, this report focuses on its mandate to review four areas of city government operations:
o police o courts o adult and juvenile corrections o fire control In addition, the report provides recommendations on the integration of the criminal justice system for greater fairness and effectiveness. The report begins with an executive summary listing key recommendations, followed by supporting discussion for each of the five areas of the committee's work. This draft of the report is intended to prompt further discussion and review by agency heads, City Council members, labor organization leaders, and other key stakeholders, in order that the committee may learn from their comments and produce a better informed final report for Mayor Street's consideration.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
The committee shares Mayor Street's commitment to more effective and responsive service by the public safety organizations in city government. We understand that improvements will depend heavily on the Mayor's leadership, and on the leadership of the respective agency heads. Whatever technical barriers may currently exist to better operation, it is the unflagging and consistent commitment by our leadership that will make the most difference-- to treating every case, every neighborhood, every citizen, and every victim as requiring the utmost care and concern.
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Accordingly, many of the recommendations of the committee center on issues of leadership. In general, we find that public safety agencies across the country have been plagued by a combination of poor leadership and excess constraints on leadership authority. The committee supports the view that leaders should be held accountable for results, and should be empowered with the authority needed to produce results. The Mayor's commitment to leadership for results, and to continual public attention to measures of those results, will be the greatest asset the city has for improving public safety. This can be achieved most visibly by the Mayor fostering monthly public safety reviews, open to the public and the news media, and broadcast on public access TV channels. These reviews would include not only agencies under the Mayor's authority, but also courts, federal and state agencies operating in the city of Philadelphia. |
Thus our primary recommendation is this:
The Mayor should revitalize the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission by requiring it to hold monthly "Safe City Meetings" to review the performance and results of each public safety agency operating in the city, to support effective leadership for results, and to hold leadership accountable.
These meetings would allow the Police Commissioner, the District Attorney and Public Defender, the U. S. Attorney, the Criminal Justice Coordinator, administrative judges, and the heads of prison, parole and probation to report on the public safety trends they are facing, what they are doing about those trends, and with what results. This will give the Mayor and the public a focused opportunity to hear about the priorities and solutions that each of those agencies should consider.
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In order to provide a sounding board for the other recommendations of this report, particularly those in section 5 (concerning issues that cut across the criminal justice system), the
committee would welcome the opportunity to participate in the first meeting of the Commission. Given the large portion of the city budget consumed by public safety costs, we recommend that this first meeting would be more beneficial if it were to be chaired by Mayor Street. The current crisis in the Pre- Arraignment Reporting System (PARS) and the increased dismissal rates for felony arrests would provide the two major issues on the agenda for such a system- wide meeting.
In order to give continuing attention to the importance of crime prevention and not just punishment, the Safe City Meetings can also devote two or three meetings each year to measures of the work and results of prevention programs. These would include Licensing and Inspections, School District, Department of Recreation, Safe and Sound, and other relevant agencies and programs. Integration of non- criminal justice services into the overall review of public safety strategies can help promote dialogue about the relative investments that should be made in prevention versus reaction.
The remaining recommendations all address issues that can be discussed in Safe City Meetings, as well as other venues, based on the high priority assigned to them by the Committee.
1. Police The Committee generally endorses the transition memo prepared by the Police Commissioner, attached as an appendix to this report. In addition, the Committee respectfully suggests the Mayor consider the following priorities for improving the fairness and effectiveness of the Philadelphia Police Department, and its fulfillment of the Mayor's goals for community policing:
a. Achieve a Collective Bargaining Agreement that allows police leaders to lead, especially in terms of transfers, scheduling, civilianization of non- enforcement tasks, and crime focused tactical efforts on such crucial problems as gun violence.
b. In order to increase the diversity of talent, language skills and background of Philadelphia police officers, as well as to insure the excellence of their performance, change city ordinances to allow recruitment of police who will establish residency within one year of appointment, and to allow dismissal of probationary officers for up to 12 months after appointment. Consideration of raising police compensation to be more competitive with other cities should also be considered, as a possible means of obtaining more police field activity with fewer but more effective officers.
c. Provide public or private resources to create opportunities for every sworn officer to earn a college education, especially the top 100 managers in the P. P. D.
d. Change the City Charter to allow the Police Commissioner to appoint all ranks above captain from the Civil Service appointees at that rank level, to serve in the higher rank at the pleasure of the Commissioner.
e. Provide a realistic budget for non- personnel costs, including such services as computerized booking of suspects (PARS), verbal judo training, computer systems implementation, forensic analyses, a 311 system for service calls, and management training; a 2 to 3 percent increase in current budget (about $10 million) could save substantial funds in overtime and lost patrols.
The committee also offers additional recommendations for the Mayor's consideration:
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a. Conduct small- scale experiments with the concept of non- sworn "Enforcement Officers" relieving sworn police officers of such non- enforcement tasks as taking accident reports, substituting for absent school crossing guards (thus relieving police from this task), arranging for abandoned vehicles to be towed away, and providing security services. These experiments can compare different approaches to delivering these services.
b. Expand Operation Sunrise to other high- crime areas, with public reporting of detailed evaluation results for the work of each city agency participating, and full integration of such city agencies as DHS, Health Department, schools, and an expanded Youth Violence Reduction Program; consider longer term application of the additional resources entailed to insure lasting change.
c. Restructure the regulation of police conduct around the use of such proactive methods as early warning systems, integrity testing, limited station- house and traffic stop video surveillance, and other evidence- collection strategies that do not rely on the accidental availability of eyewitnesses. In order to fully provide for police accountability to citizens, the Police Advisory Commission appointments must be filled and the Commission requires adequate staffing. The position of Internal Accountability Officer, required under a court consent decree, must be filled and should be institutionalized with adequate staff.
d. Obtain state and city legislation facilitating towing of abandoned cars. e. Address community contacts with greater deployment to bicycle patrols and longer- term assignment of officers to the same small areas.
f. Increase police- corrections (including probation and parole) collaboration for intensive supervision of repeat offenders and truants.
2. Courts a. The committee strongly recommends that the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission should be reactivated and used as a communications tool for the agencies of the criminal justice system.
b. An emergency response to the crisis in the Pre- Arraignment Reporting System (PARS) is needed to keep the system from collapsing. The short- term need is for two network servers, with a long- term need for a more responsive information system support for the entire system.
c. Planning for the potential increase of cases during the Republican National Convention should involve the entire criminal justice system, in order to assure adequate facilities and personnel.
d. The proposed new video arraignment system will meet a great need and should be fully funded. e. Trials should not be canceled because defendants have not been transported from a state facility. Better transportation and the new video system are needed to reduce the waste of personnel this produces.
f. New facilities are needed to replace the Youth Study Center, which was never designed to serve its current function as a long- term holding facility.
g. The number of house arrests should not exceed the capacity of court personnel to provide adequate monitoring. Either the numbers of such arrests should be reduced or the numbers of monitoring personnel should be increased.
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3. Corrections a. Appoint a working Board of Directors consisting of reform oriented representatives from the community, the Defender Association, Probation and Parole Departments, and other interested agencies which serves as a true supervisory body and as a management consulting team to develop and ensure implementation of the best practices of prison management. The Board, consistent with the City Charter, should exercise the power to review the conduct of the Commissioner and make sure that he or she is accountable for implementing the best practices of prison management and programming.
b. Remove or reassign Wardens and Senior staff who do not adhere to or are resistant to implementation of best practices for prison management or encourage a culture which treats inmates and their families in a degrading and disrespectful manner.
c. Revise civil service rules (which may require a City Charter change) to allow the hiring of wardens and deputy commissioners by the Commissioner, in consultation with the Board.
d. To reduce overcrowding and recidivism: 1) Increase funding and expand non- prison programs for post- conviction offenders which address specific needs of inmates for drug and alcohol treatment, mental health treatment, life skills development, education and job skills (an excellent program is currently in existence for convicted persons to be assigned to facilities designed to meet their specific problems whether they be drug- related, mental or life skill problems).
2) Greatly expand programs such as Half Way Back which provides housing, community service and rehabilitation to those who violate conditions of probation.
3) Seek an amendment of the Commonwealth law that requires counties to incarcerate all persons with sentences of two years or less to those persons with sentences of one year or less.
4) Expand the current practice of sending Philadelphia County prisoners to be housed at other county prisons. Explore housing at the new federal prison in Philadelphia.
e. Programs to prepare inmates to re- enter society: 1) Fix existing Work Release glitch by processing all persons sentenced to work release during evenings or weekends to prevent them from losing their jobs and becoming a further burden to the taxpayers. Alternatively, defer execution of sentences until classification is complete.
2) Develop and implement innovative programs and in- prison jobs which truly prepare inmates to re- enter society. Use prisoners to repair and maintain prisons and cook food (under staff supervision) in conditions that simulate building maintenance and food service work.
3) Hire two additional social workers and involve volunteers to coordinate and teach job training and preparedness programs.
f. Instill civil conduct, discipline and maintain order by requiring all inmates to address corrections officers as Ma'am and Sir and require all corrections officers to address inmates as Mr. and Ms. Enforce
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the policy strictly. Punish those who do not adhere to the policy. (Many confrontations between inmates and corrections officers grow out of verbal disputes, name calling, and displays of disrespect. In addition, if inmates are shown a modicum of respect for themselves as human beings by corrections officers, many inmates will respond in kind and show increased respect to corrections officers.)
g. Create a zero tolerance for corrections officers using excessive or corporal punishment. h. Reward corrections officers with promotions and higher pay for non- traditional activities and running programs which are designed to increase discipline and improve work and life skills of inmates.
i. To attract, retain and train better quality corrections officers: 1) Raise educational requirements and pay. 2) Expand the recruitment process beyond the current two month recruitment period. 3) Create a state of the art training center. 4) Expand in- service training. j. Develop federal, state and private funding sources for innovative programs to prepare inmates to re- enter society.
k. There needs to be greater coordination between the Prison's health- care and mental health providers to ensure that inmates are accurately diagnosed for mental illness and properly treated.
4. Fire Control The Fire Control subcommittee has developed detailed suggestions for study by the Philadelphia Fire Department concerning these issues:
a. Increasing the Fire Commissioner's capacity to choose the top management team. b. Marketing City capacity to regional fire departments in such areas as training and communications. c. Increasing multi- lingual capacity in the PFD. d. Increasing educational requirements and achievements. e. Clarifying accountability for fire code enforcement. f. Restoring a maximum age level of 36 for new recruits. g. Reviewing compensation for all firefighters. h. Addressing health issues for firefighters, such as hepatitis C, by seeking partnerships with local medical schools and research facilities.
5. Criminal Justice System
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a. The Mayor should revitalize the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission with the appointment of a Criminal Justice Coordinator (who might also serve as Deputy Managing Director for Public Safety) and a committed Commission Chair (who might ideally be the Mayor) to improve the overall operation of the criminal justice system.
b. The Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System (PARS) should be rebuilt with leased or out- sourced information technologies to save millions of dollars in wasted personnel time, under the system- wide authority and accountability of the Criminal Justice Coordinator. Immediate action on this issue will help avoid lengthy delays during the Republican Convention and other potential periods of overload in the criminal justice system.
c. The criminal justice system budget should continually be evaluated in light of the potential return of investment in prevention alternatives, especially with respect to discretionary federal funds that can be sent either to criminal justice agencies or to drug treatment, after school programs, and other immediate- payoff prevention programs. On balance, the committee recommends greater investment in prevention programs.
d. Recent reports of increasing rates of felony case dismissal must be addressed by coordinated action of the criminal justice system. The committee concludes that the court system has developed too great an emphasis on clearing case backlog, with a greater need to balance concerns of victim protection, normal delays in reaching court on time, and the challenges of scheduling police officer appearances. The committee recommends that the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission make this issue its highest priority, with consideration of the following proposals for dealing with the problem:
1. Adopting the practice of the "Second Call" used in other cities, which avoids dismissal of cases merely because a victim has missed a bus and arrives at court 20 minutes late, or some other transient difficulty in scheduling a court appearance to a precise time in the course of a morning or afternoon.
2. Exploring other ways of providing evidence at hearings besides live testimony. In cases where the defendant does not challenge the statements made by victims, witnesses or police, it may be sufficient to provide those statements in writing, by videotape, or even by live telephone interview from a distant location. Thinking "out of the box" but well within Constitutional requirements for confronting accusers could produce major increases in justice in Philadelphia.
3. Accelerating Mayor Street's plans for implementing "community courts" as a less formal, but potentially more effective structure for sanctioning minor crimes, repairing harm done to victims, and strengthening community capacity.
e. The overcrowding of available prison space for almost 7,000 prisoners is a problem that is best addressed system- wide. The committee recommends that the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission actively consider more alternatives to incarceration, both pre- trial and post- sentence. The Commission should also discuss priorities for the use of scarce prison beds, which might possibly include guidelines by offense type. For example, drug possession cases may not be as important for prison space as armed robbery.
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f. Significant savings in City funding of the courts might be achieved by a review of the clerical staffing for each judge. Upwards of $5 million per year could be saved by consolidation of the positions of "tipstaff" (also known as the judge's "personal") and the Clerk of Quarter Sessions. One, but not both, of these non- civil service positions is clearly essential for scheduling cases in each court. The cost of these positions might be better allocated to crime prevention, drug treatment, home detention or other alternatives for increasing public safety.
g. There is a growing public concern about the number of hours judges actually sit on the bench each day. The allegation that judges only work three hours to four hours per day is damaging to the legitimacy of the legal system. The committee does not presume to understand all the operational complexities of this issue. It is clear, however, that the concerns have not been addressed publicly by the Courts. The committee recommends that the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission discuss the issue and provide a consensus statement to the citizens of Philadelphia about the daily scheduling of judicial tasks, in relation to the optimal means of reducing dismissal rates for cases where evidence is sufficient for prosecution.
SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
Police Subcommittee
Bill Bergman
Brian Gordon
William Gonzalez
James Mills
Ernest Morris
Maureen Rush
Lawrence W. Sherman*
Courts Subcommittee
Joe Cairone
Eleanor M. Dezzi*
Joe DiPrimio, Esq.
Ellen Greenlee, Esq.
Ray Harley, Esq.
Corrections Subcomittee
Brian Gordon*
Marilyn Bradley
Ernest Morris
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David Kairys
Walter Sullivan
Fire Subcomittee
Steven Cozen*
Jason Mayland
Tsiwen Law
* Subcommittee Chair
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