Memphis mayor likes Philly gun program

AN INITIATIVE that the city started this year aimed at curbing gun crime will likely be replicated more than 1,000 miles away.

Officials from Memphis, Tenn., visited Philadelphia early this week to meet with Mayor Nutter, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, First Assistant District Attorney Ed McCann and others to learn about GunStat, launched in February by the Police Department, the District Attorney's Office and other partners.

Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton said that law-enforcement officials there are trying to reduce youth gun violence and that his team heard of GunStat and wanted to learn more.

"We have a similar challenge here," Wharton said. "We thought [Philadelphia] is a good place to go up and take a look at it and we exceeded our expectation as to what we wanted to learn."

Wharton said he plans to implement an initiative similar to GunStat, which Philadelphia officials say has reduced gun crime in target areas by more than 20 percent.

"While they're a smaller city, they're facing some of the more serious crimes we are seeing here," said Assistant District Attorney Angel Flores, who also met with the Memphis officials. "They really got to see up front everything we have in our arsenal to deal with these violent offenders."

" @morganzalot

Blog: PhillyConfidential.com