Philadelphia police, facing budget cuts, move shift times to fight crime

Faced with a spike in shootings and killings, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has taken steps to put more officers on the street overnight, when most violent crime occurs.

Halfway through a sweltering summer and with millions in budget cuts looming, Ramsey turned to the new strategy as a way to hold on to some of the progress made in recent years to bring down the city's crime rate.

To increase police presence in troubled neighborhoods without incurring overtime pay, the department this week will begin moving the start times for some officers' shifts by four hours. That change, which will take place no more than six times a year for any officer, allows commanders to beef up patrols between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. - when, police said, most crime occurs.

Officers assigned to work midnight to 8 a.m. might be asked to report at 8 p.m. one night and work until 4 a.m., Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross said. Officers accustomed to working 4 p.m. to midnight might one day be asked to come in at 8 p.m. instead.

The police union's contract allows commanders to change an officer's shift by up to four hours six times a year, Ross said.

"The budget being what it is, we have to look at what's available to us," Ramsey said. "We've got to deal with what's going on right now. We have to get our crime numbers down, and to do that we have to take advantage of what we have."

The city's homicide count stood at 171 Wednesday morning, up from 158 a year earlier. Nonfatal shootings are also on the rise, 905 compared with 788 a year ago.

The numbers don't approach the city's 2007 figures, when Ramsey joined the department. That year, the city had 224 homicides by mid-July.

Violent crime overall is still down 5 percent from last year, Ross said, but the numbers are troubling.

"We don't ever want to return to those days," he said, referring to 2007. "We have to be vigilant. We needed to respond to this."

Last week, Mayor Nutter announced $47 million in cuts to the city's budget, including $6.3 million from the police overtime budget. Ramsey has said the department's budget will be trimmed by $13.7 million through several rounds of cuts.

Ramsey has canceled two police academy classes, and has redeployed 60 officers from special units to patrol until Oct. 9.

John McNesby, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, praised Ramsey's crime-fighting efforts and said the budget cuts had placed the commissioner in an impossible position.

"He's trying to do everything possible and work within the contract, but they're stripping him of resources," McNesby said. "They want him to fight crime without giving him any ammunition, and for him to be held accountable for crime when he's not getting what he needs is a disgrace."

Not all officers have reacted positively to news that their shifts may be moved some days, but Ross said he believed the changes would help.

"We're very mindful of the effect this has on these officers and on their families," Ross said. "But we're in the business of crime-fighting, and this is necessary."

In addition, the department plans to assign more officers to temporary foot patrols, a push similar to a strategy implemented last year. Then, the department assigned more than 200 police academy graduates to three-month foot beats organized around the city's crime hot spots - a tactic that led to a 22 percent drop in crime in those areas.

This summer, police will have fewer than 50 officers to enhance the city's existing network of foot patrols.

"It doesn't begin to rival what we did last year," Ross said, "but every little thing helps."

Other new strategies include using members of the highway patrol this summer for "Rolling Thunder," in which 20 to 30 patrol cars will move through troubled neighborhoods in a show of force. Also, members of the narcotics field unit will focus on serving warrants in targeted districts.

"We're not going to use the budget as an excuse," Ramsey said. "We're not crying about it. But I'm going to push as hard as I can to get as many people on the streets as I can. We need all hands on deck."