Philly Police Dept. has inconsistent strategies, slow response times, and outdated systems, city controller says

The Philadelphia Police Department doesn’t formally evaluate its main patrol and crime-fighting strategy, creating an inconsistent patchwork of officer deployment across the city in the midst of a gun violence crisis.

That’s according to City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart, whose office on Tuesday released a long-awaited audit of the Police Department and its nearly $800 million budget. The eight-month review identified flaws across the department, including haphazard deployment, outdated systems and technology, and a trend of using sworn officers to perform administrative tasks.

The deficiencies have material effects on how the department responds to crime, the review concluded, including a low homicide clearance rate, slow 911 response times that are worse in communities of color, and a dearth of community input and trust.

And staffing levels have reached such a critical low that some districts deploy just a dozen officers at any given time to patrol multiple neighborhoods.

» READ MORE: Philly has spent $205 million on salaries for injured police since 2017. An audit found little is done to prevent fraud.

”There needs to be a significant operational revamping of the Police Department,” Rhynhart said during a news conference Tuesday, “to better provide the core mission of public safety across our city and to better support our officers.”

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw wrote in a response that the 85-page review was “thorough.” The department said it’s analyzing its recruiting methods, exploring ways to modernize, and already tracks some crime and deployment data.

A spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement that the Police Department “has a number of efforts underway to continue to improve operations and we look forward to continuing to implement changes that improve efficiencies.”

The review was conducted by Rhynhart’s office in partnership with three outside firms and a community council. They interviewed more than 30 members of the department.

The review was requested by City Council in December 2020 after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd set off protests and political discourse over how police are funded. The force receives more city dollars than any other department.

Rhynhart has long been critical of Kenney’s response to gun violence. She is expected to join a crowded field of Democrats battling to succeed him and, under city rules, would need to resign to seek the position.

Here’s more on the findings:

Outlaw has touted the department’s patrol strategy, “Operation Pinpoint,” as a data-driven approach. Commanders deploy resources to so-called pinpoint zones based on intelligence about where violence has occurred. In some cases, that means officers patrol crime hot spots on foot.

The strategy, which launched in 2019, was a key component of the Kenney administration’s antiviolence strategy. In 2020, the number of pinpoint zones was expanded from seven to 45, but Rhynhart’s review said the decision to rapidly scale the strategy “may have impaired PPD’s ability to effectively implement it.”

No formal assessment of the strategy has been conducted. Sgt. Eric Gripp, a spokesperson for the department, said the department’s executive team has recently undergone turnover and, as a result, an evaluation of existing patrol strategies will take place. The department anticipates changes to deployments in several areas throughout the city.

“Although there hasn’t been a formal evaluation,” he said, “we are making improvements to the Pinpoint strategy.”

Analysts do keep track of crime, arrests, and incidents within pinpoint zones, but Rhynhart’s review said internal assessments don’t contain information about officer deployment in relation to those incidents.

And while the strategy ostensibly relies on foot patrols, some commanders said foot patrols aren’t possible because of staffing limitations or the geographic size of areas that officers are expected to cover.

» READ MORE: Hundreds of Philly police officers work administrative jobs that could be done by civilians, a study found

Rick Collins, a social worker and community activist who sat on the controller’s community council, said increased foot patrols could cut down on what he sees as a “warrior culture” within the force.

“The kind of ‘us vs. them’ issue going on between police and civilians really disturbs me,” he said. “The idea is to try to make them more accountable.”

About 95% of the department’s $788 million budget is spent on personnel costs like salaries and benefits. But despite that enormous slice of its budget, staffing is one of the force’s largest problems.

The investigation found that the number of uniformed officers declined by about 500 in the last three years, bringing the force to below 6,000 sworn officers.

The roster could fall below 5,200 within the next three years if attrition continues at the same rate. To keep pace, the department would need to more than triple its current rate of recruitment, the review found.

That’s compounded by injury claims that are keeping hundreds of paid officers out of work — driven in part by some exploiting a disability program. Rhynhart’s office found that more than 570 officers were unavailable for duty as of this summer.

According to Rhynhart’s office, about 2,500 officers are assigned to patrol. The rest of the 6,000-member force work in administration or specialized units, like detectives bureaus and forensics.

After accounting for officers who are not on active duty, most of the city’s police districts — which cover several neighborhoods — average between 11 and 22 officers patrolling at any given time.

The number of officers on patrol declined since 2020 amid an exodus of officers, but the review found that those declines weren’t uniform. For example, the largest decline in patrol officers was in the city’s East Division, which includes the Kensington neighborhood that has long struggled with open-air drug sales and violent turf wars. It had nearly 25% fewer officers patrolling this year than in 2017.

The smallest decline in patrol deployment was in the city’s Central Division, which includes Center City.

Response times to 911 calls have increased significantly over the last several years, and the trend is worse in communities of color, the review found.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia police response times have gotten 4 minutes longer, about 20% worse

The department strives to answer all 911 calls within 10 seconds. But between 2017 and 2021, the percentage of calls answered in that time decreased citywide from 95% to 68%. That decline coincided with an exodus of call-takers and shake-ups in the radio room.

Rhynhart’s review compared response times by district, and found that the longest response times were in districts with the highest concentration of Black and brown residents. For example, the majority-Black 12th, 19th, and 35th police districts, along with the majority-Hispanic 25th district, have consistently longer response times than majority-white districts.

The review said that the disparity exists even when analysts controlled for call volume and crime rates. The review recommended the department consider an additional external assessment of its 911 system.

Reviewers also found that the department too often relies on outdated human-resources systems, manual data entry, and paper records.

For example, personnel information and employment records for every department employee is kept on index cards in addition to electronically. Vacancies are tracked manually in a Microsoft Excel file. Civilians who work at the department record their time on physical timesheets, and that information is later manually input into electronic systems, sometimes by officers.

And a handful of sworn officers’ full-time job is delivering interdepartment memos between districts.