Numbers tell grim crime tale in Chester
CHESTER >> Crime in by the numbers:
In 2017, there have been 7 murders, and since last Thursday at least 21 shootings, 19 robberies, 53 burglaries, five stabbings, eight rapes, 12 motor vehicle thefts and over 6,000 calls for service.
Those numbers from Chester Police Chief James Nolan IV came as a revealing look into the police department that is operating at half the staff it had 40 years ago.
With 85 officers, eight of them fresh out of the academy, Chester police promoted two patrol officers to the detective division after losing five detectives at the end of last year. The department is facing a difficult task in enforcing and prosecuting the ongoing issue of crime in Pennsylvania’s first city.
“The numbers this year are staggering because seven homicides is the most — going back to 2006, the most we ever had in a month was five,” Nolan said.
That number came in 2014 when the city had its highest ever number of homicides with 30.
Looking outside of the city for sage advice and the promise of resources and cooperation, Chester Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland called a meeting of the minds from neighboring police departments and state officials on Thursday to discuss measures in which to reclaim the streets from violent crime.
“You can never police your way out of violence it has to start here, it has to start in our homes,” Kirkland said in the evening session, expressing the need for Chester, greater community support than ever before.
Yet, Thursday morning the tone was significantly more in favor of upping the number of police manpower and a focus on the number of illegal firearms the city recovers every year.
“For our young people today, it’s easier for them to get a gun than a book,” Kirkland said.
Former Chester Mayor John Linder claimed that between January 2012 and February 2015, the police department recovered more than 500 guns from the streets. In 2016, the city recovered 144 illegal guns, “most with arrests, some not,” Nolan said.
Chester police already have recovered 14 illegal guns thus far this year.
County District Attorney Jack Whelan was the first to promise more resources from the county.
“We’re going to work in cooperation with Mayor Kirkland to address having more boots on the street, not in the future, but in the immediate timetable,” Whelan said. “I’m talking weeks, not months.”
Part of a forthcoming “five-point plan,” Assistant District Attorney George Dawson said the D.A.’s office intends to send the Criminal Investigation Division to patrol neighborhoods, to fund a gun task force, to pursue and prosecute more heavily suspects in straw purchases.
Last week, Dawson invoked the mandatory minimum under the Brad Fox law for defendants convicted of more than one instance of illegal firearm sales on Ronald Eli Williams, 27, of the 1200 block of Crosby Street, who pleaded guilty to six consolidated counts of illegally transferring firearms he purchased at local stores between Sept. 2011 and June 2014.
Dawson said the city could see a “surge in manpower” from Pennsylvania State Police as well as other departments.
Whelan said he’s seeking to implement a gun crime and narcotics strike forces with help from the state Attorney General’s office.
Since 2006, the Gun Violence Task Force in Philadelphia, comprised of officers from the Philadelphia Police Department and assistant district attorneys, has implemented an aggressive approach investigating and prosecuting violent crime perpetrated with illegal firearms.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Thursday he wants to see the task force expand into Chester.
“Chester is a city that needs more attention from the Attorney General’s office ... we need make sure our Mobile Street Crimes Unit is deployed to the city of Chester to collaborate with the D.A. and police commissioner,” Shapiro said. “I would appreciate having greater authority to take my Gun Violence Task Force out of the city of Philadelphia and add it to other communities across Pennsylvania.”
Shapiro said it would require authorization from the Legislature and additional funding from the state.
State Sen. Tom Killion, R-9 of Middletown, said that he and others in the state Legislature “want to be (among) the players” to help stem the spread of gun violence.
Killion expressed a desire to further legislation that limits the sale of firearms — he has been endorsed by Delaware County gun control advocates — but his Republican colleagues are among those who oppose such legislation and have fought tooth and nail in support of Second Amendment rights.
“We can’t seem over the finish line,” said. to get Killion