It isn’t news that cities like Camden, NJ and Philadelphia, PA are reducing their violent crime statistics. I’ve been posting that news along with most of the posts I write here about the current situation in Wilmington. What these cities have done includes re-orienting themselves to data and intelligence-driven forces, able to address crime hot spots and get out in front of crime — rather than simply wait for a phone call to respond to. Heck, even the SEPTA has moved to a data-driven policing model and is clearly bending the curve on their own crime problem.
So what’s wrong with Wilmington? Last night (May 12), there was a Town Hall where Mayor Dennis Williams presented himself to Wilmington residents to talk about the city’s issues. I wasn’t at this event at the Woodlawn library — mainly because this Town Hall didn’t get announced to the world until May 11 around 11:15 AM. (This has been the odd thing about these Town Halls, they aren’t announced until the last minute and often look like counterprogramming against something that isn’t making the Administration look good, or against someone they want to make a point with. A recent Southbridge Town Hall was held the same night as Tom Gordon’s State of the County address. They scheduled a Town Hall at Bayard Middle for the same night as the last Wilmington Public Safety Strategies Commission meeting — called off at the last minute after everyone howled at them. This one was about the same time as AG Matt Denn’s meetings in Hilltop and Hedgeville about the extra patrols they are funding. Juvenile, certainly. But if you followed Tom Lehman’s tweets on this, it seems that the Fire Chief has been responsible for scheduling these town halls. Remember when I was arging that the WFD was too large for a city this size? Right?)
But it seems that about 50 or so Wilmingtonians showed up to listen to the Mayor get belligerent, defensive, evasive, paranoid and just plain rude with them. Right out of the box, he was asked about the WPSSC recommendations and he decided to let everyone know that this report was just politics — by people who wanted to make him bad. He told folks that thee would be a “press conference” at some date to be named later to talk about what the city’s response would be. Keep in mind that this report was released on March 31. And that there have been neighborhood groups writing to Williams asking for the implementation of this report and a new petition asking for specific action to deal with the city’s violence. Chief Cummings told the world in the WPD budget hearing that they were already working on implementing most of the recommendations, but when asked which ones, he could not remember. Yet, they are supposedly doing all of this implementation yet no one can talk about it. We’re waiting for a Press Conference.
This report is the plan to address Wilmington’s crime issues that Williams said he would deliver when he was campaigning. His plan never really materialized (what he passed off as his plan is basically a copy of a bunch of programs the former Chief implemented, hoping that no one would notice), which is why the violence continues. Operation Disrupt has some mixed success (since 3 shootings have occurred within 4 blocks of my house since Easter, it is always going to look mixed to me)– but it is not a sustainable effort. The WPSSC Report (here is a shorter version of just the prioritized recommendations) focuses on providing the WPD a roadmap to transforming itself to the data- driven and intelligence-led force that has been a key strategy in places like Philly and Camden who are making some progress with crime and violence issues. This is the plan that — if implemented well — could start restoring confidence in the city and could genuinely bend the curve on the violence problem.
Yet is seems that the Mayor’s major objection to this plan is that it is “political” and somehow being used against him. It is political to the extent that Governor Markell is trying to respond to folks that Williams will not listen to, because Delaware’s biggest city cannot go the Detroit route. It is political to the extent that Williams’ rivals have embraced this report for what it is — a path to greater safety for those of us who live and work in the city. It is political because Williams promised that we would not recognize the city after two years, and the city isn’t any safer and nor is it run any better.
Sometime last week, Williams’ office ostentatiously released a Press Release saying that he ordered a study for the use of body cameras for the WPD. Did you know that the WPD already has some cameras? They sit in a closet somewhere, waiting for a policy to guide implementation and usage. But they got a grant from somewhere to get this equipment — equipment they were not ready to use. So by the time that they actually get their study and policy done, they’ll tell us that the cameras they *did* get are technologically out of date with the policy that they want to implement. City Council has some blame here, because they have to say yes to the grants, and did not hold up this effort to make sure that policy was in place. Write the grants, get the equipment and it doesn’t matter whether we can use it or not — we have the equipment. This isn’t how organizations are supposed to run technology implementation. And no government should be asking for money that they won’t put to good use.
But here is some very interesting technology — this video (approx. 8.5 minutes) is of the Hot Spot analysis done for the Commission by a professor at Temple University. This is the kind of analysis that the Commission’s report recommends that the WPD be able to do. But as I saw this report, I saw what most of us knew — that there are places in the City where crime is born and this doesn’t provide any surprises. Except now there is real data to back up what we know. And that real data ought to be the start of trying to figure out why crime is so comfortable in these places. Unfortunately, this kind of analysis (analysis that shows that some of this hot spot activity ripples into downtown) hasn’t inspired this Administration to roll up its sleeves to figure out what is going on at these spots so that they can start addressing those problems. This data generally confirms what people who live here know. It apparently isn’t going to drive an approach to actually getting ahead of these problems.
At the meeting, Williams told the crowd that the thing he would most want to accomplish would be to keep kids from dropping out of school. Read that again. That is a laudable goal, really, but that is not his job and not what he was elected for. Public safety, making sure public works is competent and economic development *are all of his jobs* and he is (IMO) failing at all of this. Nor does he seem to care, either. Businesses and homeowners really are uncertain about Wilmington’s future. And at an event where he could help put that uncertainty to bed, Mayor Williams just added to it (His bodyguard apparently threatened to remove a constituent who routinely expresses her displeasure with Williams. She doesn’t threaten anyone, but doesn’t much like that her questions are avoided. She wasn’t a physical threat, but handcuffs were dangled in her face — appalling. The first amendment doesn’t mean anything to these folks, either.) He can’t see much further than the idea that there are political forces out to get him and nor can he see that he is living in the political bed he made. He can’t see that persistently dealing with people who want nothing more than for the city to be safer, for their homes to be worth something and for their businesses to thrive with contempt and disrespect isn’t a strategy to take advantage of the teamwork being offered by these homeowners, business owners and other people who care about Wilmington.
One of the biggest things I learned about Wilmington during the WPSSC process was just how many people want to be a part of the solution. It is heartbreaking to watch this Mayor squander all of that good will because he can’t see anything other than political threats and the backs of his bodyguards. Mayor Williams seems to think that people are making up their issues with the city’s crime problem or that they are talking about it because they have a political agenda. The Nixonian seige mentality pretty much means that he isn’t going to pay attention to our issues — and certainly isn’t going to be in the business of improving public safety in some sustainable way like he promised at his inauguration:
