Yesterday, Charles Ramsey and Mayor Nutter released the new crime plan that will be implemented, following Nutter's declaration (fulfilling a campaign promise) of a 'crime emergency' in the city. Despite worries centered around Nutter's "Safety Now" campaign plan, and his rhetoric about civil liberties ("you have the constitutional right not to be shot."), we have a plan centered around community policing...
Thank goodness!
In the 21-page report, stop-and-frisk, already used somewhat by the police force, is mentioned one time. They are also planning to greatly increase the use of surveillance cameras, which I am not a huge fan of.
However, the most worrisome part of Nutter's campaign plan- declaring a state of emergency over entire neighborhoods, with corresponding curfews, going after people 'gathering' on sidewalks, limiting cars going in and out of neighborhoods, etc., has basically vanished. Instead, the plan emphasizes sending more officers into communities, and get back to basics. As Ramsey said:
"There is nothing fancy about it," the former Washington, D.C., police chief said at a news conference. "It's fundamental, it's basic. This is not Batman and Robin coming out of a cave somewhere."
I don't know whether Nutter had a change of heart, whether Ramsey 'walked him back,' or what. And then, we have the the appointment of Everett Gillison as his Deputy Mayor for Public Safety:
"I have spent the majority of my adult life as a social worker or as an attorney representing these people," said Gillison, a lifelong Philadelphian. "We went through this whole bit of 'just lock everybody up' . . . but I always thought those people were our kids."
At the heart of Nutter's campaign was his pledge to reduce violent crime. He's hired a nationally renowned police commissioner who today releases a new crime plan.
But Nutter said he needed better oversight of the entire criminal-justice system. He wanted cooperation among police, judges and prisons. He wanted someone to analyze the big picture and develop new strategies for problems like youth violence and convicts' re-entry into society after prison.
....
Beyond that, Gillison is looking for projects that will help reduce violence in Philadelphia in the long term. He spoke about enhancing re-entry programs and expanding the number of community courts to handle smaller offenses.
Regardless of whether you thought it was a good thing at the time, Nutter ran on a crime platform that policy and rhetoric wise was very law-and-order. However, by his actions thus far, his crime policies as Mayor are pretty basic and reasonably progressive, and will decidedly not launch martial law in Philly neighborhoods. Count me relieved, and happy.
I love that article about Everett Gillison
and particularly the part Dan posted.
Having someone at a high level of city government committed to all those longer-range interventions we know are needed is a revelation (that sounds melodramatic but I mean it). And it is likewise nice to see the police committing to just nailing down the basic core elements of effective and careful policing.
Campaigning vs. Governing
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said:
"Law and order" shocks. It resonates. It scares some people, mostly thoughtful, progressive people, but its the thing that most people can understand. When crime is skyrocketing during a campaign, the rhetoric a candidate has to use to be successful is that he's going to be tough on crime.
So Nutter wins. Now he's the mayor for at least 8 years, unless, as someone I talked to this morning said, "he kills someone. Even then, he probably still gets re-elected."
Safely in office, he can walk himself back and be a little more thoughtful about how to go about getting to this crime problem. He also has the added luxury that it seems like crime in the city, or at least the murder rate, seems to be down even more compared to this time last year and the year before. If the number of murders "naturally" cycles down by about 25 and then Ramsey/Nutter only have to bring it down another 75 (still tough) to achieve what would be a miraculous 100 murder decrease.
If that happens, no one who voted for him based on his macho, "tough on crime," "law and order" rhetoric will care that he didn't actually declare the state of emergency and enact all of those draconian measures.
Look at the pdf
The actual plan in Dan's first link is full of really good stuff. Stuff that any progressive would love. Stuff like:
It also has a ton of eminently sensible policies for reorganizing the deployment of resources. The kind of stuff that makes you say "What? They weren't doing that before?".
Ramsey was a very good hire.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.
Caveat
My only comment re: 'Ramsey was a very good hire' is: let's wait and see how things look in a few years before we make that judgment.
-z
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
"Good" in my sense means "good", solid, of reasonable quality. Not necessarily a "bold visionary" but someone well versed in community policing as well as statistical analysis. Somebody who is in touch with the contemporary trends of policing strategy but who also focuses on the basics. "Good", i.e. not "bad".
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.
Agreed, somewhat
I agree that Ramsey's career emphasis on community policing is a reason for optimism. I do, however, have two issues:
1) While the crime rate in DC did decline significantly (~40%), Ramsey was criticized for alleged civil rights violations, specifically re: his use of crime emergencies (as Larry West has rightly pointed out), traffic checkpoints at which motorists who were committing no crime at the time were entered into a police database, and mass arrests at the IMF protests in Pershing Park in 2002.
2) Whatever his qualifications, Ramsey isn't John Timoney, which makes him something of a dissapointment. Timoney was the best thing to happen to the Philadelphia Police Department in my lifetime. Was Timoney perfect, especially on civil rights matters (see the 2000 GOP Convention for examples)? Absolutely not. But he is the man who basically designed the crime fighting strategy in NYC which made it (arguably) the safest large city in the US. Dwight Evans' campaign pledge to bring Timoney back to Philly was, far and away, the best reason to vote for him. And, since Timoney said many times how much he loved Philly- he even lived here + commuted to NYC when he took a job there in private industry- he was probably available for the right price.
YMMVW,
-Z
Timoney was a tad overhyped
Timoney was a tad overhyped in my opinion in part because he was a very media friendly guy. Making smart use of targeted statiscal approaches like COMSTAT should not seem revolutionary at this point but more just par for the course and its just sad that Johnson so deemphasized it. What I like about Ramsey's approach is that its a mix of statistical analysis about how to use resources better (redploying of resouces to the districts and hours when crime happens most, adjusting manpower seasonally) and basic community policing. Its ballanced. Of course the proof is in the implementation.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.
Important note re: Timoney
Timoney *created* Compstat (the specific program, under that name) for the NYPD.
-Z
Do you have a cite for that?
Do you have a cite for that?
Ah, my bad...
According to an article in Slate (http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/05/giuliani/index_np.html), Jack Maple invented Compstat. But Timoney was heavily involved in the application of Maple's program in the NYPD, and brought it to Philadelphia when he came here.
-Z
Like I said, I am cautiously really optimistic
about Ramsey's stated approach, but a bunch of $10 weed busts are not really what either our murder rate or (unconstitutionally) overcrowded prison system needs.