by KYW's Tony Hanson
Incoming police commissioner Charles Ramsey served 30 years on the Chicago police force before becoming the Chief in Washington DC but he’s facing a tough challenge in Philadelphia.
Mayor-elect Michael Nutter says there's a crime emergency in Philadelphia but Ramsey says the police department, under his leadership, will get lean and mean and do what they have to do to make an impact on the streets:
“…so we will be very aggressive and very focused in dealing with crime. But we will do it within the framework of the law because one thing we will not do is abuse the rights of citizens. So we will make sure our officers know the limitations that they have on and that they enforce the law fairly and equally throughout the city, but enforce it we will.”
Ramsey has told the Mayor-elect he won't let him down.
and, as KYW's Mike Dunn reports Nutter is vowing to give his police commissioner broader powers to choose top brass at the department.
Philadelphia's city charter from the early fifties stipulated that the police commissioner can choose only two of his top commanders. Others are civil service. Previous mayors have vowed to change that so the commissioner can hire and fire more, and now Michael Nutter has joined the chorus:
"This has been a serious concern for a long period of time. This is a paramilitary organization. I am asking the police commissioner and our top commanders to go out there and put a game plan together to make this city work."
Nutter says he will work with city council to push for a charter change referendum. A half century after the charter was written, he says there is clearly a need for change.
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