Patrol mandatory for Phila. officers

Police commanders have the stereotype of sitting around and idly eating donuts, but that's all changing.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson announced last month that Philadelphia's highest ranking officers would be required to join the rest of the force by patrolling the streets for at least four hours each week.

The "brass" patrol began April 3 and is a reaction to the city's escalating murder rate, Sergeant Philip Pace of Philadelphia Police Department said.

There have already been 106 homicides in Philadelphia this year as of Saturday, compared to 90 by the same time in 2006 - an 18-percent increase.

Pace emphasized that this was not intended to cure all of Philadelphia's problems on its own.

"This is one small element of our strategy," Pace said, explaining that they need to "implement everything we can" to deal with Philadelphia's soaring crime rate.

Criminology professor Lawrence Sherman said the success of the increased forces on the street will "depend on what they actually do" rather than on numbers alone.

Sherman was pleased that the high-ranking officers will have to do their four hours a week in the evenings and early morning, the worst periods for crime, but he hopes officers will focus their efforts on areas with the most gun crime and on confiscating illegal weapons.

Philadelphia Police also hope that having the police commissioner himself and other commanders on the streets will improve the force's performance as a whole.

The knowledge that the commissioner himself is out there makes everyone "bring up their game," Pace said.

Pace said many commanders already patrol the streets, often more than the obligatory four hours per week.

And he mentioned an extra benefit of the plan - it shouldn't cost the city anything, since police officers above the rank of captain are not allowed overtime.

The state legislature, meanwhile, is about to debate 15 separate gun-control bills backed by Gov. Ed Rendell.

Last year, no fewer than twelve gun control bills were defeated in Harrisburg, mainly by politicians from rural parts of the state.

One of the current proposals, by Philadelphia representative John Myers, involves giving Philadelphia the right to make its own gun laws, but it may still face opposition on Second Amendment grounds.

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