Inconsistent Police Response Plagues Northwest

Claims that police response has been less than satisfactory are nothing new in the Northwest. Increases in both violence and property crime make headlines city wide and the Northwest is no exception.  Community meetings with representation of every level of law enforcement from the FBI to the SEPTA police have been held, but only the most general statistical data has been released.  Most often the residents are told to be more vigilant and “if you are - - we will respond in kind”. Maybe not.

While we don’t report detailed information about every violent and property crime that takes place in Germantown, Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill, we do try to print some regular information in our police report section in each issue. It has been necessary for us to visit the district station and wade through all the records from the period and select those that are appropriate. To complicate matters, Germantown was divided a few years ago between the 14th District that covers all from Chestnut Hill, through Mt. Airy and then to Queen Lane on the West side of Germantown Avenue.  From that point, an irregular segment of SW Germantown is serviced by the 39th District; whose headquarters is in Hunting Park. Unfortunately, that arrangement puts one of the most problem-plagued areas in the Northwest very remote from its district station and on the other side of the natural barrier of the Wayne Junction railroad complex.

As a follow up to a well attended meeting in Mt Airy a few months back, this newspaper attempted to gather statistical data from both the DA’s Office and the Police Department with hopes we could publish some factual current and background data that might lead to a more informed citizenry, and possibly a fresh approach to the very structure of the 14th District.  For the 14th is the largest and busiest in the system, and it is plagued in many ways with the difficulty of serving a dense population in a city that was laid out long before autos existed and there are no fast conduits to allow quick police response, particularly when a virtually crime wave has taken place with general statements from the police of 30% increases in some crimes being reported.  The response from both the DA and the Police Department initially was mediocre at best.  Requests I have made in past meetings as to how many cars and officers we have today versus past years have never been answered, claiming it is confidential data.

I have not kept a tally of how many citizens have told me repeatedly how slow response has been and even to the point that there are some calls that never get answered.  We published a recent story of a local educator who was beaten in Mt. Airy for no reason just a block from her home with apologies from the responding officers for being so late and blaming cutbacks.  We later learn of a violent crime that detained them, but we need to know more, much more.

This newspaper became aware first hand of an example of exactly what may be serious neglect in prioritizing response, or just plain lack of equipment and/or personnel.

Last Monday a violent physical attack on a female in a second floor Mt. Airy office during business hours was instantly called in by co-workers to 911. So disturbing was this attack that employees from the first floor ran to her aide and multiple calls of a beating in process went to 911 within minutes. Although the beating was interrupted briefly when it was announced the police were on their way, when they did not arrive quickly the beating resumed and was only stopped when another employee arrived on the scene and restrained the attacker.  Over a half hour passed and no police response whatsoever to an easy-to-access address on Germantown Avenue itself.

While an employee held the attacker, another employee went out to the Avenue hoping to direct the response vehicle quickly to the location.  Instead, she flags down a passing Police Car that was a separate special unit on its way from a training mission and not on call. This officer takes immediate professional control of the situation, calls for backup, handcuffs the attacker and when searched is found to be carrying a shiv knife.

According to multiple witnesses it was as long as 45 minutes before the flagged down police car got a police officer on the scene.  According to information we have received from the district, the second arriving car was not the 911 dispatched car, but one called for backup when the one officer hailed down saw the situation.

Due mainly to Police Department bureaucracy we have not been able to ascertain if the car from the 911 call was ever dispatched.  Bear in mind that 911 was told multiple times of a violent physical attack in process.

Sadly, this may not be an isolated tragic incident that could have easily taken a worse turn if the attacker was not restrained by a citizen.  According to others, these kind of responses are not all that unusual. I have contended for quite some time that the 14th is too long, too overworked, and needs to be revised/restructured to meet current needs.

As a result of this incident and extended discussions with Commissioner Ramsey’s office, this newspaper will be publishing comparative statistics for all violent and property crime in the Northwest from Wayne Junction to the top of Chestnut Hill.  These will include both 39th and 14th District data where it applies to Germantown.

We will continue this practice for four issues of the paper and the comparison will be with the same periods of time one year back and five years back.  It should then be easy to identify just how much the number and types of crimes have increased (if they have) over past periods.  Of course if the calls are never completed then the records are skewed.

The other questions that need answering are the number of assigned officers, the average experience level, the number of cars used over the same periods and whether the technology of getting 911 calls properly triaged is meeting the needs of the community.

We intend to get all these questions answered and we have been promised direct intervention from Commissioner Ramsey in taking some remedial action.

The front page of this issue of our papers shows a car stop last Sunday in Mt. Airy. What seemed to be a very routine stop of a non-suspicious vehicle with two occupants was obviously responded to by 3 vehicles, multiple officers, and one “White Shirt”. The driver was released and let go after being handcuffed and sitting in the police car for some period of time.  Sure, its one situation and I don’t know the details, but it seems that we have an unbalanced approach to policing in the Northwest that needs transparency and remedial action.

This newspaper is going to make sure that happens.

Jim Foster, Editor