Philly relaunches gun violence listening tours; residents are skeptical
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Gilbert Coleman was part of a small group of Nicetown residents who met with city of Philadelphia staffers about gun violence this April. He told them that he and his neighbors are afraid to sit on their porches or run their errands because of the ongoing surge in shootings. He pleaded to law enforcement officers attending the meeting to do something.
About six months later, Coleman said he’s seen no change.
“I have not seen an increase in patrols in the area,” he said. “The police officers are still parked … but they seem to be just sitting there.”
He said he was hoping to see, if not direct action, some kind of implementation plan created from the feedback residents gave at the meeting. It was one of ten spring sessions included in the city’s “listening tour.” They launched the effort last March to collect input on their 2019 Roadmap to Safer Communities, a five-year plan for reducing shootings.
Now they’re holding another round of listening sessions running through Sept.15, with a focus on neighborhoods they didn’t touch the first time, but some residents say more discussion isn’t the way to address the daily fatalities in hard-hit communities.
“The action plan should have been drawn up,” Coleman said. “To have the meetings again and just be listening again, that’s going to prolong the agony of the people in the neighborhood. It doesn’t change for them.”
Philadelphians affected by gun violence often call out city officials for not more urgently addressing the gun violence crisis, and there’s been a continued push for Mayor Jim Kenney to declare the issue an emergency. A recent survey from nonprofit group Frontline Dads found that 96% of residents think the city leadership “could do more to stop gun violence” and 89% say city leadership has never asked them for suggestions on how to address the problem. Activists have also asked for more evaluation of city-funded programs.
Erica Atwood, director of the city’s Office of Policy and Strategic Initiatives for Criminal Justice and Public Safety, said staff are currently going over the input from residents and will release an implementation plan in the future, but did not have a ballpark date.
“Phase two of going out and listening is really about how do we implement what we heard, or really integrate what we heard from the community, into what we’re doing?,” she said.
She added that simply encouraging city staffers and residents to break bread together and share ideas is valuable.
“There’s never enough time being spent with impacted communities by those of us who are in positions of power,” she said. “It helps inform us to make better decisions on behalf of others.”
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