Day 2 - Tuesday 12th March

Today we were hosted by Philadelphia Police Department (the 4^th largest PD in the USA) with Officer David Jones of the Community Relations department (not community relations in the NI sense!) co-ordinating our engagements.  The day kicked off with the chance to meet Commissioner Chuck Ramsay and find out about some of the ongoing work to reduce violence in the city.  It’s a stark statistic that in 2012 there were 331 murders in Philly (population 1.5m), with guns involved in 85% of those cases.  We were impressed by Commissioner Ramsay’s commitment to evidence-based policing with policing priorities backed up by solid evaluation.  He also expressed a strong belief in relationship-building between police officers and the communities in which they serve – new recruits spend a year on foot patrol so that they learn to meet people and develop relationships.

Chris with Commissioner Chuck Ramsay

Next we were off to the Philadelphia Mural Arts Programme which runs approximately 46 mural arts projects a year and engages with local communities to create pieces of public art within those communities as well as running a variety of initiatives with at-risk young people and adult offenders.  On our travels across the city already we had spotted many of these murals and they are very striking adding a lot of colour and beauty.

One of the artists at the Mural Arts Programme explaining the process of creating the city's murals

At the Family Court House we gained an insight into the juvenile justice system and met with the Administrative Judge & his team.  The speed with which young people are processed through the system is something that the justice system back at home could learn a lot from, and whilst much of the system in Pennsylvania is very different from Northern Ireland’s approach to juvenile justice it was clear that the Judge is committed to improving outcomes for young people involved in the system.

After lunch we arrived at the Police Academy to meet the head of the Philadelphia Police Explorer Cadet Scheme which is a well established programme that provides training to young people with an interest in a career in law enforcement.  We had the opportunity to speak to some young people currently on the programme and it was fascinating to hear their stories – one young man related how the scheme had offered him the opportunity to make positive choices and turn his back on negative influences in his community.  It’s a very intensive programme – the young people attend every Saturday 9-5pm, but it’s clear that the young people get a lot out of it and gain the opportunity to develop strong leadership skills.

Our group at the Police Academy with the Explore Cadet Scheme Corporal Coyle (far left) & Officer David Jones (6th from left)