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Philly's no-nonsense new mayor begins zero-tolerance crackdown on crime in city's notorious Kensington neighborhood
Philadelphia's new mayor is bringing 'broken windows policing' back to the city of brotherly love, writes The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.
Democrat Cherelle Parker was inaugurated as the city's first female mayor on January 2, and her first act was to declare a public safety emergency through an executive order.
Contained in that executive order was an explicit command directed at Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel to develop 'a strategy to permanently shut down all pervasive open-air drug markets,' especially the ones present in the city's notoriously crime-ridden Kensington neighborhood.
Kensington - also known as 'The Badlands' by locals - had 376 narcotics violations per square mile in 2023, compared with 16 per square mile across the rest of the city.
For years, it's been common to see people shooting up and ingesting drugs like fentanyl in this area. And while this continued to go on, former Mayor Jim Kenny tried to veto the bill that successfully banned supervised drug injection sites.
People, some of whom are addicted to drugs, stand on the street ahead of a clearing of a homeless encampment in the Kensington neighborhood on May 7, 2024 in Philadelphia
A man walking on Kensington Avenue holds drug needles in his hand and mouth
A man appears to inject himself in the arm with a needle in broad daylight
Parker and Bethel are taking a different approach, unified in their objective to crack down hard.
The Philadelphia Police Department began with soft enforcement though, giving drug users on the streets a so-called 'warning and opportunity window to seek treatment.'
That window closed on June 18, when officers shifted to enforcing the letter of Parker's January executive order.
A month later, the police have updated the public on the progress they've made.
They've seized narcotics worth more than $52,000 in Kensington alone, as well as 'half a dozen firearms' in just three weeks, the Journal reported.
They also towed 35 unregistered vehicles, took back two stolen cars and seized three dirt bikes often driven recklessly throughout the neighborhood's streets and sidewalks.
Per Parker's enforcement plan to curb 'quality-of-life' and 'prostitution' crimes, officers made 125 arrests in Kensington from June 18 to July 11.
Still, numerous first-time offenders were given opportunities for treatment and support rather than immediate prosecution.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, a Democrat, has made public safety one of her top priorities to tackle while in office
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel rose to his post at the same time Parker became mayor, and the two have been close partners in the fight against crime in the city
However, for those in favor of more crime enforcement, this plan certainly isn't the end all be all.
Progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner is still in office and is ultimately the one who's responsible for prosecuting drug crimes and other offenses.
And Krasner's staunchest critics say he often refuses to do so, citing his stated reluctance to prosecute certain marijuana and prostitution cases.
After getting elected to the prosecutor's post in 2017, Krasner circulated a memo to his office telling his deputies not to charge sex workers with as many as two prior convictions.
People with three or more convictions aren't headed to regular court, Krasner ordered. Instead they were to be sent to DAWN Court, a diversionary program that seeks to reintegrate sex workers with drug problems back into society.
Also contained in the memo: a directive to go much softer on retail theft, a crime category that's been on the rise all over the US.
Philadelphia Democratic District Attorney Larry Krasner (pictured) was impeached in 2022 after critics said he failed to crack down on crime
This is a common scene in Kensington, which has been known to house more than a third of the city's known homeless population
Pictured: Homeless people in Kensington in the days before Christmas in 2023 as charity volunteers show up to hand out food and warm clothes
Reported thefts have exploded in Philadelphia based on data that's publicly available on the DA's website.
There were 13,595 reported thefts in 2022 compared with more than 18,000 in 2024, and the year's not even over yet.
Despite the apparent ideological mismatch between the DA - whose current term ends in January 2026 - and the mayor, the police department is pushing forward to replenish its ranks so it can more effectively bring about public safety.
The department, like many others across the country during the pandemic, has been dealing with extreme vacancies.
CBS News Philadelphia reported in November last year that the city's police department was down 1,000 officers.
As such, there's been a major recruiting push, offering new sign-ups a 20 percent bonus and academy classes every six weeks.
The most recent class trained 80 new officers, 72 of which will be assigned to Kensington to continue the ongoing effort to get drugs off the streets.