Crime key to Philly mayoral race

In a city in which 406 homicides took place last year, crime is shaping up to be the number-one issue in the Philadelphia mayoral race.

Consequently, the election's four declared contenders - former Councilman Michael Nutter, state Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Phila.), Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Phila.) and businessman Tom Knox - have begun their respective campaigns by announcing intended reforms in the methods the city uses to fight crime.

The candidates' plans are devoted to problem areas of the city such as North and Southwest Philadelphia rather than University City - as they should be, said Penn Criminology professor Larry Sherman.

With Penn's campus being an area of low-volume crime, the city should "focus resources on areas of gun violence," he said.

Nutter was first out of the gate with his proposal, testifying before a state committee in Harrisburg over the summer about the issue. He favors hiring 250 more police officers and garnering "additional support" from the state in the form of more gun control legislation, he said.

Fattah announced that he would hire the number of police officers asked for by the city's police commissioner, according to a recently released policy proposal concerning gun violence that he described as "the most comprehensive plan [on illegal guns] anywhere in the country."

Evans unveiled his anti-crime strategy the same day he officially announced his candidacy.

Evans' plan focuses on putting 500 more police officers on the street, pursuing illegal guns and increasing coordination between Philadelphia Police and other police departments, including Penn Police.

"Our major police-force entities don't have the ability to communicate seamlessly," Evans spokesman Tim Spreitzer said, adding that important police forces in Philadelphia, such as SEPTA and Housing Authority police, don't share the same dispatch system with Philadelphia Police.

Penn Police already has access to the dispatch system.

Knox, according to spokeswoman Susan Madrak, will focus on creating jobs and fostering economic growth as a way to attack poverty, which he sees as the underlying problem of high crime rates.

And many candidates say they are eager to work with Penn in their efforts to cut down crime.

Evans says he wants to involve Penn Police officials in meetings between police-force heads to discuss coordinating strategy.

Fattah also said he will be working with Penn in trying to tie in the University's closed-circuit television cameras into the 1,000 or more cameras he plans on installing citywide if elected.

Sherman declined to comment on which candidate's proposal he thought would be most effective but said that the plans put forward by Nutter, Evans and Fattah all address problems he sees with the city's current crime-fighting approach.

Sherman had not seen Knox's proposal.

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