Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel on restoring a sense of ‘order’ to Philadelphia

Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel inherited a city and police department at a crossroads.

High rates of gun violence. An open-air drug market that has made national headlines. An increase in nuisance crimes. An understaffed police force. Residents — and a new mayor — who want to see change.

And now he has about 55 days to draft a plan for how to address all of that.

“I’m not counting,” he said with a smile.

In an expansive interview at the department’s North Broad Street headquarters, Bethel laid out his top priorities for the year, issues that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has promised that her administration would address: reducing quality-of-life issues and gun crime, stabilizing Kensington, and hiring more officers who will engage in “community policing.”

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Although he mostly declined to share specifics on his plans, which he is still developing, Bethel said he intended to return a sense of “order” to the city — something that could mean an increase in pedestrian stops, stricter enforcement of drug crimes, and more police officers walking foot beats.

He acknowledged that these visions are big, and that success would require tackling some of Philadelphia’s longest-standing issues that are deeply entrenched in poverty, racial inequities, and a mistrust of police. Challenges lie ahead.

But Bethel, a native Philadelphian who worked in the police department for 29 years before retiring and then returning, said he has hope, and intends to look at each issue, especially those involving lower-level nuisance and drug crimes, from both a public safety and public health perspective.

The goal, he said, is to bring a new sense of security to Philadelphia neighborhoods — with community leaders at the center of it all.

Many of Bethel’s priorities were outlined in Parker’s 100-day plan. Her first executive order made the police commissioner responsible for developing a plan to reduce crime overall, including property crimes and such offenses as retail theft, car theft and the illegal use of ATVs and motorbikes.

Bethel declined to share specifics but said the department would “increase [its] efforts” on these issues, whether that be with personnel or more targeted strategies.

The idea, he said, is not about being “harder” on crime, but bringing order.

“Let’s take the law out of it — just order,” he said. “All of this stuff is happening and people are looking at us like, ’Don’t you see what I see?’”

He says they do see it — the guys on the corner gambling or selling drugs, the speakeasies and illegal dumping — and they plan to address it.

He intends to return a level of “certainty” to residents that if a person commits a crime, there will be accountability.

What that accountability looks like, he said, will vary.

Bethel said Philadelphians in areas with the higher rates of crime could see an increase in police conducting pedestrian stops — a tactic more commonly referred to as “stop and frisk. “ Still, he said he’s committed to reviewing all stops to ensure they’re conducted legally.

The strategy has been used in policing for decades, he said. To stop someone, police must have “reasonable suspicion” that the person may be involved in criminal activity. Frisking a person requires the officer to believe that person may be armed or is otherwise “presently dangerous.”

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The use of stop-and-frisk in Philadelphia peaked in the early 2010s, during Mayor Michael A. Nutter’s administration and while Bethel was leading patrol operations. It declined precipitously under former Mayor Jim Kenney, decreasing from nearly 200,000 pedestrian stops in 2015 to fewer than 10,000 last year.

Bethel said the stops are an important part of crime prevention as long as they are conducted within legal bounds. He said every pedestrian stop is reviewed by the department’s internal affairs and executive teams, as well as an outside group and a federal judge, to ensure that the stops are constitutional and no one group is being disproportionately targeted. If a stop is questionable, he said, the officer receives additional training.

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“It puts us at great harm when we sit there and say, you should not make any stops, particularly when I have reasonable suspicion to stop someone, and I believe that person has a gun,” he said.

He said he would not issue a directive to increase stops or set a quota, but that, in the 10 police districts that experience about 80% of the city’s crime, officers may stop more people as part of the crime-fighting plan.

“I am going to be charging the men and women who go into those areas to try to work to identify those out there who are potentially committing crimes and have committed crimes,” he said. “Through that process, if ... they see someone who potentially has committed a crime, then they are going to make those stops.”

Bethel said he plans to open a new victims’ advocacy unit within the department — people who will work directly alongside detectives and officers to bring services to victims and families after crimes, and update them on the status of investigations.

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For years, crime victims and families of homicide victims have said they struggle to maintain contact with the detectives handling their cases, exacerbating their pain and leading many to feel as if their loved ones are forgotten. Bethel said he has heard these concerns, and wants to fill that gap.

“We have to be more empathetic,” he said.

He declined to elaborate on the size or scope of the unit, but said it will be part of his upcoming budget request.

He said he hopes the initiative could lessen homicide detectives’ workloads and improve community relations. He would like to see the homicide clearance rate reach 60% (in recent years, it’s hovered around 50%).

Stricter enforcement of drug crimes in Kensington could begin as soon as April and will be a “phased approach” in which community groups will first be given time to warn people using and selling drugs of new expectations in the neighborhood before police begin enforcing laws and making arrests, Bethel said.

Although he declined to outline the plan in detail, he said police will not “occupy” the area but instead will work alongside community stakeholders to begin enforcing laws in a neighborhood where open drug use — and the quality-of-life issues that come with it — has largely been ignored.

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First, he said, community groups will spread awareness of the new enforcement plan, and essentially warn people who use or sell drugs on the street that they need to leave and seek treatment, or they could soon face arrest. That will begin soon after he presents his plan to Parker in early April, he said.

Then, police will begin enforcing drug use and sales laws.

He said officials are still in the process of developing a detailed plan that must take into account both public safety and the complexities facing people in addiction, including the dangers of withdrawal, open flesh wounds, mental health issues, and disabilities.

Parker also pledged to hire 300 more police officers — a lofty goal at a time when the department has struggled to fill its existing positions.

The force currently has about 5,500 members, nearly 20% below its budgeted staffing levels. And because of recruitment challenges that have affected police agencies nationwide — coupled with a months-long training process and retirements on the horizon — the issue will likely get worse before it gets better.

Bethel said that more than 40 officers join the force every six weeks, and that the department is working to speed up the onboarding process. He also said he’s looking for ways to slow down retirement and also bring back retirees.

The department is also exploring ways to boost morale — an issue that intensified following the police murder of George Floyd and the widespread racial justice protests and calls to defund police.

Bethel said he is in the process of calling every officer who has been shot while on duty over the last three years, to check in and thank each one for the sacrifice.

He also intends to expand the number of officers on foot and bike patrols to get more officers out in the community, interacting with residents face to face, so the department and the community can better understand each other’s needs.

“We’re going to be lockstep with the members of our community to make sure that we’re doing an effective job,” he said.

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article