After months of delay and silence, Mayor John Street appointed Sylvester Johnson as Police Commissioner and Secretary of Public Safety on Wednesday.
Johnson has been acting Police Commissioner since Jan. 4, when his predecessor John Timoney resigned, and Street appointed Johnson to the temporary position. He was sworn in at a ceremony at the Pennsylvania Convention Center Wednesday morning.
Many city groups have been calling on Street to appoint Johnson to the post permanently, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Fraternal Order of Police and the Guardian Civic League. The groups joined together to organize rallies urging Street to make the appointment.
Street, however, remained silent on the issue of making Johnson's appointment permanent until this week.
"The mayor never bows to pressure from outside forces," Street's spokesman Frank Keel said. "He went through thoughtful deliberation. He wanted enough time to evaluate Sylvester."
Johnson has served on the Philadelphia Police force for 37 years, working his way through the ranks. At the time he was appointed as interim commissioner, Johnson had been deputy commissioner of operations -- the second highest ranking position in the department.
Jerome Mondesire, president of the Philadelphia NAACP, one of the groups that pressured for the appointment, believes that Johnson has been sensitive to "the racial profiling and police brutality that go on in this country."
Johnson himself is black, and is the the third black person to hold the position of commissioner in Philadelphia.
"We know that Sylvester will be especially sensitive to racial injustice issues towards civilians, management and the employment of men and women on the streets," Mondesire said.
Street never mentioned another candidate for the position during the three-and-a-half months that Johnson served as interim commissioner. The mayor had originally intended to open the search for a police commissioner to the national level. These plans, however, never materialized.
Timoney, for example, had been hired from the New York Police Department.
"The original thought was to look for some candidates of national stature," Keel said. "But it became increasingly apparent that the guy for the job was right here."
One of Johnson's most notable accomplishments during his tenure as deputy commissioner was his work with Operation Sunrise, an anti-drug operation begun in 1998. Johnson was the leader of that project.
Johnson "led the extremely successful program that helped to rid the city of 300 open-air drug markets," Keel said.
During his time as interim commissioner, Johnson promoted 171 new commanders, another move approved by Street.
Noting his past accomplishments with the Philadelphia Police force, Mondesire is pleased with Street's decision.
"We're glad [Street] finally came around to see the wisdom that a lot of other people saw earlier," he said.
