Temple says violent crime in its patrol zone is down, while it announces next safety steps

Violent crime in Temple University’s police patrol zone has decreased over the last five months, compared with the same period last year, the university said in an update sent to the campus this week.

Aggravated assaults, which include shootings in which the victim does not die, fell from 31 during the first five months of 2022, to 18 for the same period through May 31 this year, the university said. Only one of those aggravated assaults was Temple-related, meaning it involved Temple staff or students, said Jennifer Griffin, Temple’s vice president of public safety.

Robberies decreased from 28 to 26, and car thefts from 21 to 18, the university said.

The campus patrol zone is a quadrant drawn north from Jefferson to Susquehanna Streets and from 18th to Ninth Streets, with an additional chunk covering athletic fields.

» READ MORE: Temple should lead a collective effort to make North Philly safer, says long-awaited report

“Any decrease in violent crime is going to be received very well, especially with the challenges we’ve had over the last year as a community and as a city,” Griffin said during an interview, “although there is still much work to be done in this area.”

There were three homicides in the patrol zone in 2022, none of them Temple-related, she said. So far this year, there was one, the Feb. 18 shooting death of on-duty Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald.

The campus safety update — which also noted increases in police equipment, changes in department organization and other measures being undertaken by the department and the city in response to a campus safety audit released in April — came a week after the Temple University Police Association called for Griffin’s resignation. The union cited the recent firing of three female police officers within a 48-hour period and said Griffin’s actions haven’t protected officers or the community.

Griffin during the interview made it clear she isn’t leaving.

“I choose to focus my energy, my time and my resources on moving us forward and working to better serve the community,” she said. “I show up every day for work, dedicated to making improvements. … I can only hope that others will show up physically and mentally because that’s what the university and the community deserve.”

The university last week in a statement declined to say why the officers were fired, citing personnel matters. But it said police officers must follow work rules, which “embody core values of law enforcement,” and that the university takes any violations “extremely seriously.”

Alec Shaffer, president of the union, said that the firing of the officers sent a “very distressing message” to those still employed, leaving people wondering if they are next.

“It seems like Temple likes to lead through fear rather than collaboration and communication,” he said.

As for the dip in crime, he said he wasn’t confident it illustrated any significant trends, noting that the drop in incidents in two of three categories was not large. He said he’d want more information on the decline in aggravated assaults to understand what happened.

The security update did not address the firings, but Ken Kaiser, senior vice president and chief operating officer, lauded Griffin’s work in the little more than nine months she has been in the job.

“She has already made an undeniable impact,” Kaiser said. “We could not be more pleased with her leadership and overall commitment to campus safety at Temple.”

Shaffer, however, described the latest campus safety update as “nothing new” and asserted that the department still must do more to attract new officers and improve the amount of equipment on hand for officers.

The university said in the update that by the end of June, all officers will have new upgraded Tasers and a new handgun. Outer uniform bulletproof vest carriers that reduce stress on the lower back also have been ordered, the university said.

The memo reiterated that the university is in talks with the police union to increase salaries, improve benefits and add retention bonuses to lure more officers. The university already has announced $2,000 signing bonuses, Griffin said.

The university also wants to attract officers from other departments and increase contributions to police retirement accounts, it said. The department has 101 sworn police officers, including administrators, commanders, supervisors, detectives and patrol officers, Griffin said.

“We’re pretty close,” Shaffer said of the negotiations. “We actually might move on a deal [Friday]. We want more police officers. We’re hopeful this will make a change in recruitment.”

The university said it plans to launch an online dashboard on its public safety website so the public and campus community can track progress being made on recommendations, both from the safety audit and university task force reports.

» READ MORE: Temple police union calls for public safety VP’s resignation after three officers are fired

City Council on Thursday approved a resolution, introduced by Council President Darrell L. Clarke, that calls for the establishment of a Temple-Community Safety Partnership Zone and a Response Resource Task Force. Those were two recommendations made in the safety audit by 21CP Solutions, the company started by former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, which called on Temple to serve as a leader in bringing the city, community, and businesses together to improve safety conditions around its North Philadelphia campus.

The partnership zone should focus on violence prevention, crime deterrence, neighborhood quality of life, off-campus housing, outreach to residents, and business relationships, the report said. The task force, the report recommended, should be comprised of university, city, Philadelphia Police Department, District Attorney’s Office, and other state and federal representatives aimed at ensuring sufficient public safety patrols.

The university hired Ramsey’s group to conduct a comprehensive study of its police department and security personnel following the 2021 killing of Temple student Samuel Collington, who was shot during an apparent carjacking outside his off-campus residence after Thanksgiving.

Now that the resolution passed, Clarke’s office will work with Temple, city officials and community representatives to help create the partnership zone and the task force, said spokesperson Joe Grace.

“That work lies ahead of us,” he said.

A Temple Police Department reorganization also continues, the memo said, and in July, the department will start a new pilot of 12-hour shifts for officers. Police will work 15 12-hour days per month and have a three-day weekend off every other weekend. They currently work eight-hour shifts 21 days a month and get a full weekend off every 13 weeks.

“We want the officers, when they are off, to have that time to restore themselves and relax,” Griffin said.

Shaffer said officers favor the 12-hour shifts, but don’t want to rotate from day to night shifts as the pilot calls for.