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

Given its vested interest, Temple University must serve as a leader in bringing the city, community, and businesses together to improve safety conditions around its North Philadelphia campus, says a report commissioned by the school last year to study its safety measures.

“Even where Temple does not have law enforcement authority or power, it has an interest in and must exert its influence toward ensuring safety,” said the report that was released Wednesday.

Described as among the most critical of nearly 70 recommendations in the 134-page report by 21CP Solutions, the company started by former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, Temple should initiate a “safety partnership zone” in areas that “adjoin, relate to and interact with Temple most” in collaboration with the city, community, and businesses. The partners should focus on violence prevention, crime deterrence, neighborhood quality of life, off-campus housing, outreach to residents and business relationships — headed by a newly created position of community safety coordinator.

» READ MORE: Amid recent shootings, Temple hires former Philly Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to conduct campus safety audit

Also chief among the recommendations, Temple should start a “response resource task force” comprising university, city, Philadelphia Police Department, District Attorney’s Office, and other state and federal representatives aimed at ensuring sufficient public safety patrols, said the report.

Ramsey said Temple students are living farther off campus and the university has a vested interest in keeping that area safe.

“They are a major stakeholder,” said Ramsey, who served as Philadelphia’s police commissioner from 2008 to 2016, a time when the city’s homicide rate fell dramatically. “You can’t put that campus on wheels.”

But in an interview with The Inquirer, he also emphasized that Temple can’t do the work alone, calling on the city, police department, business owners, and landlords to step up.

Responding to the report, Mayor Jim Kenney said, “Reducing gun violence is the administration’s top priority, and we believe that a comprehensive and collaborative approach is the only way forward. … As we continue to make record investments in our vision for a safer and more just Philadelphia, we look forward to continuing our work with Temple University to promote public safety.”

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.

» READ MORE: Temple's campus is on edge after a student was shot to death: ‘Students are afraid’

Since then, safety concerns near campus have accelerated, especially after the Feb. 18 shooting death of Temple Police Sgt. Christopher Fitzgerald while on duty.

The report also suggested hiring incentives to lure officers from other police departments, continued upgrades of the shuttle service, and tuition forgiveness for university students who agree to work for a time as Temple police officers after graduation.

“The presence of more personnel within [the Temple police department] with long-standing familiarity and affiliation with the Temple and North Philadelphia communities can likely be a substantial benefit to the university and surrounding neighborhoods,” the report said.

Jennifer Griffin, who began as Temple’s vice president of public safety last August, said Temple already is working on many recommendations in the report, such as upgrades to the shuttle system, a reorganization of the department, making policies and safety data more accessible to the campus community, and an audit of security cameras. And it has plans to embark on others.

» READ MORE: Temple defends its police staffing struggles after the shooting death of one of its officers

She said she met with Ramsey three weeks into her job and has been running observations and plans by him and his team.

Ramsey described the Temple audit as the most comprehensive that his company has completed on a university police department — a request by Temple. He also noted that the extensive recommendations did not mean Temple was failing.

“We didn’t see anything that was a huge red flag,” Ramsey said.

JoAnne A. Epps, who became Temple’s acting president last week, said Temple wants to work on recommendations with the community and hopes to get support from the city.

“The city can’t sit back and wait for us to solve this problem,” she said. “This has to be a coordinated citywide effort of which we are a part.”

Alec Shaffer, president of the Temple University Police Association, said the report findings support what he has repeatedly said: Temple needs to recruit more police and retain them. The union is in talks with the university about hiring and retention bonuses, salary increases, and additional university payments toward officers’ retirement.

But the numbers the university has offered so far aren’t high enough, he said. The starting police officer salary, which took effect in a new contract last year, is $59,200.

“We need to be competitive, and being competitive includes money,” he said. “Let’s do it right. Let’s make the salary where it should be, the benefits where they should be and we can focus as a team effort to recruit.”

More equipment also is needed, he said. There aren’t enough tasers for the eight new officers that were recently hired, he said.

Griffin said the department ordered them before the officers graduated from the police academy, but they haven’t arrived. No officer goes on the street without one, she said, noting that the officers share three, which they sign out from a supervisor’s office before going on patrol and return at the end of their shift. She said she has created a new position under the reorganization who will be in charge of equipment and technology to better streamline the inventory process.

Sophomore Nate Weinberg, who belongs to the student group Keep Us Safe TU, which held a protest and march in February, said he was pleased to see the recommendation about tuition forgiveness for students who serve as Temple officers after graduation.

“I’m not going into criminal justice,” said Weinberg, 20, a public relations major from Abington, “but having someone pay for your college sounds pretty appealing to me.”

A Temple student group focusing on sexual assault called the report “a welcome and necessary step in increasing the … public safety on and around campus [and] … restoring trust in Temple to follow through on their public safety promises.” The group, called Student Activists Against Sexual Assault, applauded the report’s recommendation for the university to create “a clear and concise sexual assault response plan.”

Gun violence near Temple increased in both the total and the share of citywide shootings, the report said. Nineteen people were shot in what the report defined as the campus area — within 0.4 miles of the center of the university’s main North Philadelphia campus — between January and mid-August 2022.

“This means that more individuals were victims of shootings in the campus area in the first approximately eight-and-a-half months of 2022 than during the nearly four-year period from 2016 through 2019,” the report said.

The trend was the same in the larger area surrounding campus, referred to as the “near campus area.” There were 206 shooting victims there from January 2021 to mid-August 2022, nearly as many as between 2016 and 2019.

Robbery rates on and around campus also are higher than the citywide average, the report said.

The report included comments from students, faculty, and other “stakeholders” — some from a Temple student government survey last year and others gathered by Ramsey’s company since it started its review last May — expressing concerns about crime and violence off campus.

“It is extremely unsettling the amount of danger and violence in the vicinity of Temple’s campus, so much so that I am discouraged from commuting to campus to attend … classes and often consider the risks vs. benefits of skipping class to remain safe at home,” one student wrote.

“I feel anxious and extremely fearful for my life daily,” another wrote.

A faculty member said some students were contemplating dropping out “because they don’t want to take late afternoon courses, and they would rather delay — their degree than be on or near campus at night.”

A parent shared: “I am worried that PTSD is going to be an unexpected experience of going to Temple.”

Some students expressed concerns about not getting enough safety alerts or receiving them in a timely fashion when an incident occurs, but others also saw the number of alerts as having negative impact.

“The TU Alert system criminalizes the neighborhood surrounding Temple and generates fear and perpetuates stereotypes more than promoting safety,” one student said.

Some cited the need for students to receive at least one-hour mandatory safety training on how to live in an urban community.

» READ MORE: Philly colleges don’t have to report all crimes that happen near campus. Should that law change?

The number of police officers at Temple has been a point of contention. In the aftermath of Collington’s murder, former president Jason Wingard pledged to increase the police force by 50%, but the week before Fitzgerald was killed — more than a year later — there were actually fewer officers.

The Temple police officers union recently called for 40 more officers.

Griffin, who has cited the department’s difficulty in hiring officers amid a national shortage, said more officers are needed, but so is a sound strategy for deployment and a comprehensive study to determine how many.

When fully staffed with 108 patrol officers, Temple has one of the largest university police departments in the country. It currently has 79 officers.

The report recommends “a comprehensive, long-term staff study” to determine the needed number of public safety personnel.

To alleviate officer shortages, the report said Temple should consider using civilians in some jobs and recruit mental health, student housing and security employees to respond to some calls rather than police. The report noted that property crime, general service, medical and traffic issues made up nearly three out of every five police calls between 2019 and 2021.

Griffin is looking into having students in the master’s of social work program go out with officers on calls involving mental health issues, the report noted.

Other recommendations include:

Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.