Brass: Cops already stopping & frisking

With all the political talk about using "stop and frisk" as a police tool to reduce violence and homicide in the city, imagine the surprise in City Council yesterday when a top city police official testified that the Philadelphia Police Department already uses it.

"The reality is that police officers are stopping people based on reasonable suspicion every day," said Lt. Francis Healy, special advisor to Commissioner Sylvester Johnson.

But the informational Council hearing into the legalities of patting down individuals turned into a sharp rebuke of the department's manpower and street presence from Council members and the new FOP president.

Healy said he prefers to describe the stop-and-frisk policy as carrying out the "broken-windows theory," focusing on low-level crime such as public drinking or urination or minor motor-vehicle violations so police can stop and ultimately pat down people who may be carrying weapons.

When Healy said police are using the tactic all over the city, City Councilman Brian O'Neill, who called for the hearings, was incredulous.

"You have lost all credibility with me," O'Neill stormed, noting that police in the Northeast are slow at best in responding to calls involving petty crime.

Healy conceded that district officers are "running ragged" trying to keep up with 911 calls.

And FOP President John McNesby said police have no time to deal with issues like curfew violations. "We don't have the officers out there to stop people for curfew or drinking. They're running from 911 call to 911 call," he said.

And while McNesby noted that Johnson's new unit focused on small-scale crime has had some success, he said it took 80 to 100 officers out of the districts. "It was a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul," he said.

"The whole thing comes down to manpower. If we had an extra 300 to 400 officers on the street, we would be able to deploy for that broken-windows theory and be more aggressive with curfews and drinking," he said.

By contrast, Eugene O'Donnell, a former New York police officer, prosecutor and now a college professor, said the gradual crime reduction in New York is partly linked to the enormous increase in funding. "The department has a blank check," he said. *