Philly May Create High-Level Position for Crime and Safety

(TNS) – Philadelphia may change how the city coordinates its public-safety response by establishing a new, high-level position in city government that would oversee the police, fire, prisons, and emergency services departments.

Legislation introduced Thursday by City Council President Darrell L. Clarke would create a chief public safety director who would manage the budget, operations, and development of the city’s public-safety response among a handful of agencies and departments, both inside and outside law enforcement.

The director would be among the top four administrative positions in city government, alongside the mayor, managing director, and finance director.

The new role requires a change to the city’s Home Rule Charter, so voters would need to approve its creation through a ballot question. If legislation is approved by City Council, the question could appear on the primary election ballot on May 16. A spokesperson for Kenney said his office would review the legislation.

The legislation comes as the city has for nearly three years seen an unprecedented number of homicides, largely driven by a spike in gun violence. The response coordinated by Kenney’s administration has been criticized, including by Clarke and other Council members, as disjointed.

If the role is created, it will become a key appointment for the city’s next mayor, who will take office in January and replace Kenney, who is term-limited. Crime and public-safety has been a defining issue in the mayor’s race as a crowded field of 10 people are seeking the office.

A handful of other cities, including Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, have similar director-level positions in city government that oversee the city’s public-safety response. In Newark, the director of public safety position was created in 2016 and oversees the Police Department, the Fire Department, and the Office of Emergency Management.

Council Majority Leader Curtis Jones Jr., who represents parts of West and Northwest Philadelphia, said he and a handful of Council members traveled to several cities over the past year to evaluate those cities’ crime and safety plans. One of those trips — an August 2021 trek to Chester — went off course, and by the end of the day, Kenney and District Attorney Larry Krasner were publicly clashing.

Jones said a public-safety director level role would “break down silos.”

“In those other cities, they simply got along, they simply coordinated, they simply used resources in a cohesive way to attack a problem,” Jones said. “The next mayor has to elevate that on the priority of things to do so that it is impactful.”

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents parts of West Philadelphia, said Thursday the new role allows the municipal government to more effectively treat gun violence as a citywide emergency.

“We should be treating gun violence in our neighborhoods in the way that we’re treating COVID, in the sense that we’re mobilizing all the resources we have,” she said. “If we’re only thinking about gun violence as a police enforcement issue, we are losing the ability to bring so many more resources to the issue.”

Under the legislation, the new chief public safety director would be paid $265,000 a year.

©2023 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.