February 24, 2024
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice
Pennsylvania State Police are searching for a driver who punched a crossing guard at a bus stop in Fredericksburg on Tuesday.
As of last night, Philly residents will find more officers on the streets on Friday and Saturday evenings in a new effort to curb crime.
The Philadelphia Police Department will deploy additional officers in a mobile surge unit on weekend nights, First Deputy Police Commissioner John Stanford announced Friday. The unit will move around the city, though it will target areas with high crime rates. The effort is part of Mayor Cherelle Parker's 100-day action plan, which called for increased police presence.
Stanford said police have seen a high number of incidents on Friday and Saturday nights.
"We will be deploying a mobile surge team that will be compiled of a significant contingent of officers," Stanford said. "They will traverse throughout the city, obviously with the idea in mind of crime fighting but also being available for any planned or unplanned types of incidents that we've seen across the city such as large gatherings of individuals, car meet activities or any types of major incidents."
While Parker's plan did call for hiring 300 beat cops for neighborhood patrol, this unit won't come from patrol officers. Stanford said this team will be staffed by administration, support and other non-patrol units, but it won't take away from other police initiatives.
Stanford declined to share how many officers would be on each team, what locations they would focus on specifically and exact hours this team would be deployed, but did say it would be from the evening into early morning. The mobile surge team will be uniformed officers in marked vehicles.
The goal of this team is to lower crime rates, he said, but also providing aid to patrol officers as needed during large incidents.
'The focus is obviously on the crime fighting, but a major focus as well is just making sure that our officers are safe," Stanford said. "By enhancing the deployment, that gives our men and women that extra contingent of officers that are out there to combat some of the issues that they've seen."
This unit will start on just Friday and Saturday nights, but could expand to other evenings as needed, assisting with anything from violent crime to retail theft.
Data shows that increased police presences does not necessarily lead to a drop in crime, especially as a number of factors can impact crime rates in a neighborhood. A 2018 study from Penn found that cleaning up vacant lots led to a 29% reduction in gun violence.
