Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Outlaw's New Crime Prevention Plan: 'Crime-Fighting Lite'


Veteran reporter Ralph Cipriano at Bigtrial,net offers his take on the Philadelphia Police Commissioner’s crimefighting plan.

The critics' reviews are in on Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw's new 37-page crimefighting plan, and they're not kind.

A police commissioner from another city who sought anonymity dubbed Outlaw's plan "Crime Fighting Lite." It's a "B- freshman sociology paper," he said, that "fails the citizens of Philadelphia miserably" because it "lacks the fortitude necessary to address the city's criminal element proactively."

Outlaw's plan was also panned by three former high-ranking police officials who talked to Big Trial. The only one of the four critics willing to go on the record was Lou Anemone, a retired chief of the New York Police Department. Back in the 1990s, Anemone was one of the architects of the NYPD's innovative CompStat strategy credited with driving down crime in New York to record lows.

About Outlaw's plan, Anemone wrote in an email, it's heavy on "catch phrases, platitudes, and buzz words," but doesn't "really hold anyone accountable for REDUCING HOMICIDES AND SHOOTINGS," which supposedly was the main goal.

"There's a lack of proactive crimefighting" in the plan, Anemone explained in a follow-up interview. "Where's the nuts and bolts of it? Where's the beef? It's not laid out. It doesn't get to the heart of the problem."

Anemone also wondered aloud about who the plan's target audience was. "It's not the long-suffering cop out on the street or sitting in a patrol car," he said. "It's a wish list for people in the political class. It's target audience is not anybody who knows anything about policing."

… I asked Anemone, who was a cop for 35 years, and a consultant for the past 20 years, what was the biggest missing ingredient from Outlaw's plan.

"One word," he replied. "Leadership."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

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