After Mayor Parker’s history-making inauguration, now comes the hard part | Editorial

Cherelle L. Parker said all the right things in her history-making inauguration speech as the first woman elected mayor of Philadelphia.

Parker is rightly focused on reducing crime — the main issue that powered her election victory. To be sure, she brings a much-needed pulse to City Hall. Having a woman in charge is a welcome change after 99 men combined to give us the poorest big city in America and one of the most heavily taxed.

Now comes the hard part: Can Parker deliver on her promise to make Philadelphia the “safest, cleanest, greenest city in America”?

So far, she is off to a good start. In her first official act Tuesday, Parker signed an executive order declaring a citywide public safety emergency.

The measure directs new Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel to work with the city’s new managing director, Adam Thiel, and other department heads to deliver a plan within 100 days that details how they will hire more police officers, reduce violent crime, combat quality-of-life offenses, and shut down open-air drug markets. The order directs Bethel to employ “any lawful means necessary to abate the public safety emergency.”

That all sounds well and good, but the execution of Parker’s strategy is what really matters. For now, just having a fresh approach and a focus on crime is a welcome first step. It certainly helps Parker that the bar is low.

The Kenney administration lacked leadership and energy as it presided over a record rise in shootings and murders, which topped 500 two years in a row. While the number of homicides dropped about 20% last year, it remains among the highest level in recent years.

Indeed, murders and shootings are down across the country following a spike in gun violence during the pandemic. Parker will likely benefit from a continued decrease in crime. But it remains to be seen if Parker and Bethel are up to the challenge of reforming a Police Department that is a model of inefficiency and corruption.

After all, declaring a public safety emergency is one thing. Solving the crime problem is another. Recall in 2018 when then-Mayor Jim Kenney declared an opioid emergency in Kensington. But record numbers of people continued to die from overdoses in the city.

When it comes to reducing shootings and murders, just spending more tax money is not the solution. The Kenney administration added tens of millions of dollars to the police budget. The city now spends nearly $1 billion a year to fight crime with little to show for it. Two steps that could make a real difference: better use of data to predict crime, and winning over the recalcitrant police union.

Going forward, one area of early concern bears watching. While Parker brings fresh energy to the Mayor’s Office, her key hires so far are retreads from past administrations or loyal members of her inner circle. And everyone is from Philadelphia. While continuity and knowledge of the city are helpful, so are new ideas and fresh perspectives.

At the same time, several key roles and the heads of almost all of the operational departments remain vacant. Parker said any delay was the result of a more deliberative approach and the use of an outside recruitment office to screen candidates rather than rely on a system of who-do-you-know. That makes sense, though Parker has essentially had six months to assemble her administration, and so far, all the hires are insiders.

In the long run, perhaps none of that will matter. If Madam Mayor’s bumper sticker pledge to make our city the “safest, cleanest, and greenest city in America with economic opportunity for all” becomes a reality, then both she and Philadelphia stand to benefit.