Philadelphia earned the nickname Killadelphia in the national media last year as 392 murders took place in the city. Now, new Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey is trying to change both the number and the nickname.
Ramsey recently announced his aims to reduce the number of homicides in the city by 100 in the next year.
He plans to do this by putting 200 more officers in uniformed patrols by May 1 in the city's nine most criminally active districts, including Penn's district, the 18th. He also plans to confiscate more illegal weapons this year and make more frequent use of "stop-and-frisk" tactics.
Ramsey's proposal comes at a time when Philadelphia has experienced at least 330 murders a year for the last five years, with a high of 406 in 2006.
Penn Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said increasing the visibility of police by putting more uniformed patrol officers on the streets and using overtime hours is a strategy that has worked well for the Division of Public Safety for years.
This strategy, she said, "will promote a feeling of security for the citizens of Philadelphia."
Criminologists say Ramsey's proposals are ambitious, but cannot address all crime-related problems.
Penn Criminology Professor Richard Berk called the plan "on the edge, ambitious and admirable," but added that some factors are beyond police control.
"In the short term, Ramsey's plan is sensible, but in the long-term, we need to improve the schools," he said.
Yale Sociology professor Elijah Anderson - who left Penn last summer - agreed, saying, "the problem is not just a police problem, it is economic."
Anderson explained that because Philadelphia has de-industrialized and become more of a service economy, there are now fewer jobs that pay a "decent wage." As people fail to adjust to this change in the economy, they involve themselves in an underground environment, which includes violence, he said.
"The problem is that people are unable to get the jobs they need to get the money they need because they are uneducated," he added. "The main thing that the system can do to help people make the adjustment is educate them."
These issues go beyond Philadelphia, Anderson added.
"This is not just a problem in Philly. It is a problem in any city with a large under-class population," he said.
And such problems can be motivation for cities to implement new strategies.
High murder rates are "not a reason to panic," Berk said. "They are a reason to take constructive action, which is what Ramsey is doing."
