Violent Crime

I will work with the Philadelphia police, who have endorsed me, to put more officers in the neighborhoods and reengage neighborhood policing. In a very short period of time, we will be able to respond to calls faster and engage in a higher level of community participation. We need to get officers out of their patrol cars and into the communities they proudly serve and protect. By forging new relationships, police will once again become a trusted part of the community. I also will work to transfer the administration of the office of probation and parole directly to the mayor, which will yield dramatic and immediate results.

We need four basic elements to make our communities safe:

1. better law enforcement

2. an effective justice system

3. high-quality education and economic opportunities

4. community partnerships and parental involvement.

As mayor, I will fight every day of my first year to ensure that all four receive the full and complete support of the city. From day one, I will begin to add 500 more police officers on the street. I will also attack gun crimes by tracing weapons recovered from juveniles, requiring criminals with gun records to register with police. . . . It is also critically important to ensure that people of every community have the access to high-quality economic opportunities and good-paying jobs that are ultimately one of the best solutions to violence.

I'm taking action to end the violence right now. I have set up a gun moratorium . . . which has taken more than 1,000 guns off the streets. I set up a tip line in conjunction with the Citizens Crime Commission that rewards citizens who turn in people with illegal guns. In my first year as mayor, I will begin adding police officers to our force, increase the number of surveillance cameras throughout the city, and institute targeted patrols by specially trained officers to go after illegal guns on our streets.

My plan to reduce crime contains both short-term and long-term solutions. Some of my first-year, short-term goals are:

Hiring 200 police officers toward an overall goal of 1,000

Creating an Office of Public Safety with a deputy mayor

Improving school safety through individual school-safety plans and the presence of police officers

Bringing officers back to our neighborhoods, walking the beat

Creating a 311 call system

Expanding our security-camera network

Taking an aggressive stance against drug houses.

We must improve the educational and employment opportunities available in our most vulnerable neighborhoods. But we must first restore basic safety there. On my first day as mayor, I will declare an emergency in the dozen areas where gun violence is rampant. This declaration will allow law enforcement and social-service agencies to saturate these neighborhoods with the assistance they desperately seek and fully deserve. Throughout the city, I will direct police to suppress the carrying of illegal guns through stop-and-frisk, a constitutionally protected tactic designed to seize illegal guns. Everyone has a civil right to not get shot, and many Philadelphians are being denied that right.