Philadelphia officials and police are rushing to enforce existing laws and engage with at-risk communities as the threat of violence continues to loom over the city's residents.
Michael McCarrick, Chief Inspector, Patrol Regional Operations Command North at the City of Philadelphia Police Department, said various factors have contributed to the proliferation of guns and subsequence violence across Philadelphia.
Ghost guns, the fastest-growing firearm safety issue facing the nation, have led to an influx of non-traceable guns made with easy-to-acquire components that are purchased without background checks. Meanwhile, a significant number of guns have come from gun shows, where individuals buy a large volume of weapons which are then resold and distributed into the community.
Philadelphia law enforcement has seen some success in enacting policing strategies focusing on specific individuals driving gun crime or those at a high risk of becoming victims.
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"We don't do fish in a barrel. We do it surgically," McCarrick said, noting that gun arrests in the city in 2023 are "through the roof" and likely to exceed last year's numbers.
Between 1999 and 2019, for every illegal gun confiscated by the Philadelphia police, almost three more guns were bought or sold legally. Over the next two years during the pandemic, gun ownership rose drastically. The number of gun licenses issued in Philadelphia rose to nearly 52,000 in 2021, up from 7,400 in 2020.
However, many illegal and makeshift guns are proving to have more deadly and unpredictable results, with many criminals outfitting weapons with extended magazines and alterations to increase the weapon's rate of fire.
"Now they can take a semiautomatic with a piece of plastic and convert it to a fully automatic so you can fire with an extended clip in a matter of seconds, 50 rounds," McCarrick said.
More rounds mean more opportunity for collateral damage. In the past, McCarrick would often stumble upon one, two, or three fired cartridge casings (FCCs) at the scene of a crime. Today, those numbers are much higher, sometimes reaching 70 cases. That high number, combined with a lack of formal training, has led criminals to spray bullets wildly in an erratic manner to hit their target.
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While many Philadelphia residents are not necessarily carrying a weapon for nefarious reasons, McCarrick said officers continue to be challenged by the sheer volume of guns on the street, particularly in more impoverished or challenged neighborhoods.
"Unfortunately, a lot of times you have people that become victims of their own firearm because they're not they're carrying it for their safety, but they're not prepared to use it. So, it's a cycle. It's a vicious cycle," he said.
McCarrick said that while the city has made some progress on the issue of violence, they still have a "long way to go." According to the Philadelphia Police Department, 2,273 people were shot in Philadelphia in 2022, down significantly from 2021 but much greater than pre-pandemic numbers.
While some shootings have erupted near the bars and restaurants of affluent city neighborhoods, most violence is concentrated in just a handful of neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia.
In 2021, the city came under intense scrutiny after no arrests were made in three-quarters of the city's fatal shootings, despite a massive increase in arrests for illegal guns.
Many pointed the finger at Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, culminating in a failed impeachment by city Republicans who claimed the chief prosecutor exacerbated crime by adhering to progressive crime policies and botching certain cases.
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The Philadelphia government has attempted to curtail the gun crisis in various ways, including community group funding, intervention programs and new rules surrounding curfews.
Democratic Majority Whip and Councilmember Mark Squilla told Fox News Digital that while violence has taken a small dive, the city is still experiencing a lot of violent crime, such as carjackings and robberies.
"My feeling is if people do not feel safe, we're not going to be able to grow our resident base. We're not going to be able to get people back to work and we're not going to get visitors that want to come to the city of Philadelphia," he said.
There have been 210 homicides in 2023 in Philadelphia, an 18% decrease from 2022 year-to-date. Squilla said that while a consistent reduction in violent crime would be a good sign for the city, any in Philadelphia is not good.
The city has invested heavily in rehabilitative and diversionary programs, including an alternative misdemeanor program that allows city workers to engage with offenders and offer them a court-mandated service. Another program, Police-Assisted Diversion (PAD), offers low-level offenders a chance to address issues surrounding access to basic needs, treatment services and personal development programs by handing them over to social services.
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But Squilla said these expensive programs are often proving less effective because of a lack of enforcement by the city.
"If the people aren't taking the diversion program or they're not using the programs that are presented to them, we're not coming down with the hammer at the end and saying you are now mandated to do these services," he said.
"We're not saying if you don't take a police diversion, then you will be charged with the crime. We're not following all the way through, so we're not really getting the results that I believe we should be getting by initiating these programs."
Despite these concerns, both Squilla and McCarrick said programs, such as the city's Gun Violence Initiative (GVI), that actively engage communities and their youth have proven to have a noticeable positive impact on individuals who may be at the highest risk of becoming the perpetrator or victim of crime.
Max Weisman, the Communications Director for Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, said that many of the biggest challenges related to violence stem from underfunded mandates and a need to cultivate immediate change while operating within the confines of state and federal law.
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"There's a lot of things that we can advocate to Harrisburg to do and change to make Philadelphia a safer and more gun-free place. But our hands are kind of tied when it comes to what we can and can't do around gun laws," he said.
As is the case in much of the country, the COVID-19 pandemic and the current state of the American economy have also led to staffing issues for the city.
"We put $10 million into hiring those [people] with a priority on police officers because we do believe that law enforcement plays an important role in getting guns off the street and making them safer streets safer, paired with advocacy to try to tighten our gun laws," Weisman added.
Weisman also said a lack of coordination between the district attorney, the police department, the judicial system, the mayor and other city leadership has exacerbated the issue. However, McCarrick, Squilla and Weisman all agreed that cooperation has steadily improved and people are emerging from their silos to tackle the problem by improving lines of communication.
"It's definitely a situation where we're building the plane as we're flying it because we need to get guns off the streets," Weisman said.
