Phila. police chief lauds city's efforts

Before a small crowd of graduate students and University officials, Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney spoke at the Fels Center of Government Friday evening to share his experiences as a leading crime fighter and to discuss the steps being taken by the Philadelphia Police Department to enhance its own performance. Timoney, who previously served as a deputy chief in the New York City Police Department, arrived at his current role in early 1998. Throughout his presentation -- entitled "Reducing Crime as a Performance Measure" -- he highlighted the challenges facing typical urban police departments and the actions being undertaken in Philadelphia to combat them. "When you have a huge police department like the NYPD or the Philadelphia Police Department, the biggest problem is communication," Timoney said, noting that failure to share information between departments has crippled the abilities of the police to prevent crime. Key in Philadelphia's efforts to reduce these communication problems, he said, is the development of new procedures to aide in determining patterns of crime. COMPSTAT -- which stands for Computerized Statistics -- uses crime data as a scientific means of preventing future crime by projecting where and when it might occur. "The COMPSTAT practice, on a whole variety of levels, has been the biggest development in policing in the last quarter-century," Timoney said. Timoney also focused on the changing relationship between the police and the community, highlighted by the animosity which has developed in New York City between police and citizens following the strengthening of law enforcement under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "What they've managed to do up there [in New York] is to completely alienate the community," he said. "Does having an assertive police force mean you have to give up on the community relations part of it? No. You just have to work on it." In this respect, Timoney claimed, Philadelphia police are far ahead of their counterparts, as they have done a better job of reaching out to communicate and interact with members of their local districts. "It's working with people, it's communicating, it's developing consensus," he said. "I think we're way ahead of the curve of the rest of the country." Timoney's address was arranged by Fels Center Director Lawrence Sherman, a noted criminologist and Timoney advisor. According to Sherman, the commissioner's comments were indicative of the success his efforts have had in improving the effectiveness of the Philadelphia police. "Commissioner Timoney gave us an excellent overview of his leadership strategy for transforming the Philadelphia Police Department," Sherman said. "He's explained how he's motivated people to do everything they can to make this a safer city." And University Police Chief Maureen Rush, whose department participates in the COMPSTAT information program and interacts frequently with the PPD, was also enthusiastic about her colleague's work to better city-wide crime enforcement. "Certainly we espouse many of the commissioner's beliefs," she said. "We're a big supporter of John Timoney and we think he's done a great job during his tenure here."