Philadelphia’s city council met Monday, March 29, to discuss the rising epidemic of gun crimes.
There have currently been 120 homicides in 2021 according to the Office of the Controller, a 25% increase from 2020 with 92 being shooting victims.
“As an elected official, and as a father of two African American young men this is totally unacceptable,” said Chairman Malcom Kenyatta.
Chairman Jones explained that through work with several legal bodies within the city such as the District Attorney’s office and Public Defenders office as well as the Special Committee on Gun Violence Protection, some “preliminary findings” on the statistics of gun violence were revealed.
The group looked over three specific categories: how did the shooter end up pulling the trigger, how did the gun get to the scene of the crime and if this was a repeat offender, how did they manage to commit this type of crime multiple times.
These questions lead the research committee to understand that 80% of all gun violence offenders had been previously charged with a gun violence, drugs, or another violent incident.
When discussing measures of prevention for gun violence, the council discussed with the Philadelphia police department the idea of cameras around the city to help stop crime in areas where the rate of instances is higher.
Ben Naish, Deputy Commissioner of Investigations said prevention of a crime is just as important as the response after the fact. He explained technology helps, but solving the crimes are the most important aspect to the police force.
“It’s not just about technology,” Deputy Naish said. “But the cameras are a critical part of solving crime, and solving crime goes towards building trust in the community.”
With the District Attorney’s office as well, there has been collaborations with the PPD’s detective unit to follow up with preventative measures against gun crime. District Attorney Larry Krasner delivered a presentation, stating it was launched with input from Cook County prosecutors in Chicago’s “Gun Crime Strategies Unit”, which lead to a 35% decrease in shootings within its first two years.
The District Attorney’s Office continues to push preventative measures with victim outreach and school visits to help curb the spread of gun violence throughout the city.
Students Aja Moore, an 11th grader and Cayla Waddington, a ninth grader at The Mathematics, Civics and Sciences Charter School of Philadelphia spoke briefly to the importance of the District Attorney’s program and had hopes for the future of it.
“As it stands now, gun violence continues to be a huge issue that plagues the city of Philadelphia,” Waddington said. “We continue to treat the symptoms, but we are doing nothing to treat the cause.”
The City Council plans to reconvene to discuss universal access to trauma counseling for the youth of Philadelphia, which can be seen on phlcouncil.org or the following day on the council’s respective YouTube channel.
