Mayor Parker’s new approach to public safety may face a very big roadblock

Like a lot of Philadelphians, I listened to Mayor Cherelle Parker’s inaugural address last week with a sense of cautious optimism. I’m not interested so much in what our elected officials say, but in what they do. Or, as in the case of our last mayor, what he didn’t do.

And while I know it’s still very early, there’s a lot to be optimistic about with Parker so far. Her choice of Kevin Bethel as the new police commissioner seems like a sound one. Likewise, her selection of Adam Thiel as the city’s managing director. Maybe — hopefully, prayerfully — Parker’s administration will finally be the light in the darkness that has engulfed this city.

Another reason for hope: In one of her first official acts, Madam Mayor signed an executive order declaring a citywide public safety emergency — a step that was also taken by former Mayor Michael Nutter in 2008, which preceded a significant decrease in homicides and other crimes.

The executive order directs Bethel, Thiel, “and other city department heads to deliver a plan within 100 days detailing how they will hire more police officers, reduce violent crime, quell quality-of-life offenses, and ‘permanently shut down all pervasive open-air drug markets.’”

The report goes on to say that Parker has directed Bethel to employ “any lawful means necessary to abate the public safety emergency.” In an open letter to Philadelphians on Thursday, Parker said that “we are going to expeditiously get every available resource into neighborhoods struggling from scourges of crime, gun violence, drugs, and addiction.”

Sounds great, but here’s where my caution comes into play.

I don’t doubt Parker’s sincerity or her leadership experience, or Bethel’s abilities to be the smart, tough police commissioner the city needs — but I also see a major roadblock: the city’s chief prosecutor, District Attorney Larry Krasner.

During her victory speech on election night, Parker said: “You won’t be able to go in the store and steal $499 worth of merchandise and just think that it’s OK. We have to have a sense of order in our city.”

That statement was a not-subtle-at-all jab at Krasner, whose reluctance to prosecute shoplifting cases involving items worth less than $500 has essentially given dishonest Philadelphians a license to steal.

And then there’s Krasner’s approach to illegal gun possession. Last year, there were roughly 410 people murdered in Philadelphia (the final figure is still being tabulated), and at least 372 of them were shot to death.

Getting guns off the street seems like a fairly intuitive way to bring down those awful numbers. But, as Krasner said in a report on gun violence in the city that was released last year, “We do not believe that arresting people and convicting them for illegal gun possession is a viable strategy to reduce shootings.”

Oh, and let’s not forget that in 2021, Krasner — in comments he later walked back — said, “We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence.”

Seriously?

Sounds to me like Parker, Bethel, and Thiel will have trouble getting anything positive done with public safety unless and until they’re somehow able to get Krasner on the same page.

My question is: Does Parker have the courage to aggressively question Krasner’s policies and strategies? To question the same criminal justice reform approaches used by other progressive district attorneys that have led to the chaos in other cities like Chicago, Baltimore, New York, and Los Angeles? I think — I hope, I pray — that Parker has the courage, wisdom, tenacity, and strength our city needs right now.

Larry Miller is a former police reporter for the Philadelphia Tribune. He is a lifelong resident of Philadelphia.