'Years of Momentum' Needed To Fix Philadelphia Cop Shortage

The Philadelphia Police Department has made only incremental progress in addressing a critical shortage of officers after a wave of retirements and resignations, and the police commissioner acknowledged that it could take “years of momentum” for staffing levels to rebound, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The department is down about 1,200 officers from its full complement of 6,380 — about a 19 percent vacancy rate department-wide — according to Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, who took over the force last year and inherited an officer shortage that spiked during the pandemic and the racial justice movement in 2020. He said despite several years of recruitment drives and policy shifts aimed at onboarding more cops and improving department morale, “the numbers are moving, but not moving well enough.” “It’s going to take some years of momentum,” Bethel told City Council members. “We cannot go back to a place where the police department is devalued, demoralized, and then say, ‘Why can’t we get people?‘”

The force’s staffing levels were one of several lines of questioning during the police department’s annual budget hearing on Tuesday. The hearing is typically among the most high-profile events of the budget season, given council members’ interest in public safety and the fact that the agency’s allocation of taxpayer dollars is the largest of any department. Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration is seeking an $872 million police budget, about the same as last year’s allocation. About 95% of the budget goes to wages and benefits for employees, both uniformed and civilian. While the department’s funding request went largely unchallenged, lawmakers questioned the force’s top brass on staffing, programming, and crime-fighting — everything from citywide strategies to individual cases. Several members wanted to know why ongoing recruitment efforts have not yielded more new officers, while other lawmakers peppered Bethel with questions about the use of technology like body-worn cameras and drones. Lawmakers will negotiate with Parker’s office through the spring about the budget amid uncertainties over federal funding and will look to reach a deal before the end of the fiscal year on June 30.