LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We're going to focus in on one city now where crime is falling. The police commissioner of Philadelphia, Kevin Bethel joins us now. Good morning, Commissioner. Thank you for being on the program.
KEVIN BETHEL: Good morning to you, and good morning to your audience.
FADEL: Commissioner, would you just start by breaking down where you're seeing this drop in crime in your city?
BETHEL: So we're seeing a drop across the board. When we look at our murders, we're down 16% this year, but when we go back to, as Meg talked about earlier, and when we had our highest of 562 homicides in 2020, we've seen a 62% reduction in our homicides. At this point, we're on pace to have the best year we had in 58 years into the '60s - 1967. But...
FADEL: Wow.
BETHEL: ...We're also seeing a reduction in our shootings, a reduction in our robberies, our ag assaults. And so, across the board, we're seeing a significant success. And part of that starts with leadership, you know, and I can talk about where a mayor comes in and really sets a tone in safety...
FADEL: Well, let me ask you that. I mean, what specific things would you point to that have led to this violent crime dropping? 'Cause you point out that in 2021, in the pandemic, in the worst of the pandemic, the homicides were way up.
BETHEL: Yeah. I think, first, the mayor setting the standard that PIE - prevention, intervention, enforcement - are going to be the key. So everybody's leaning in the same direction, which is phenomenal, right? I think when we look at the strategy, so we're very focused, being very on our data and where we need to put our men and women. But the technology has been a significant enhancement, as indicated, as the crime comes down, you have the ability to put more resources, but you now layer on the level of technology, whether it be license plate readers, phone technology and even our advance in our forensics where we have Rapid DNA, those things have been a boon for us because we're also seeing a clearance rate of almost 83% in our homicides. And we do our shootings investigations as if there were homicides, and we're seeing a 40% clearance there. You combine that with our partnerships, with our federal partners, our community-based partners, our group violent intervention, all of that is surging together. We're all rowing in the same direction. And I think that is giving us the move beyond the mean. As Meg indicated, we're going way below our mean of where we were before, a little over 300 homicides. We're driving now into going ourselves back to the 60s. And so we just think we're in the right place at the right time - but great leadership and being focused on the work. And if I could add, Leila, we also combine that with victim advocacy, being victim centered. We've added victim advocates to our homicide unit. And so every time we have a homicide, and even when we have a shooting, our victim advocates, housed in the police department are reaching out to those families.
FADEL: Well, let me ask you about something we also heard from Meg there, that there is concern that President Trump's immigration crackdown could erode trust in police. Are you worried about that in your city where you have these community relations that are seemed to be so strong?
BETHEL: Yeah. I mean, we have not seen that activity come to Philadelphia, and so it does give us concern because we spent decades...
FADEL: That activity, meaning a major immigration crackdown?
BETHEL: That's correct, or National Guard. So - but we do recognize - we work every day to build trust in our community - does that - and we've done, for decades, work with our immigrant community to make them feel valued in our space. We continue that posture today, meeting with them and letting them know. Does it give us concerns - but policing is local. And if we stay focused on the work, if we stay committed to the community, I think we're prepared to take, you know, whatever happens, but I think we're very - we're positioned to be able to address that if it happens.
FADEL: Really quickly, would you give credit at all to the administration who has, you know, that President Trump has talked about cracking down on crime, deploying national guard, even when governors don't want that. Is there anything to that?
BETHEL: I think policing is local. I think what the federal government has been supportive of is giving us the grants and the funding to be able to do the work on a local level. That's - and the partnerships we have with our federal partners, FBI, DEA.
FADEL: Yes, thank you so much. That's Commissioner Kevin Bethel of the Philadelphia Police Department. This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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