For decades, Philadelphia police have wrestled with how best to manage the crowds that squeeze through South Street, veering between leniency and forceful control.
On this night, as many as 70 police officers were nearby. Plenty of tourists were in town for two large events — the Roots Picnic and the PHL Pride Festival — and police officials had gathered intelligence about potential violence.
For some South Street business owners and residents, the shooting crystallized their belief that the neighborhood has taken on an air of lawlessness. It is a refrain Outlaw heard often this week, from people who demanded that officers crack down on quality-of-life crimes and unruly behavior. The exact opposite, in other words, of some of the progressive policies that the department has adopted during the last decade.
Over the years, complaints like these had led to an increased security presence, including bike patrols and the opening of a police mini station on the strip. But even with a cop effectively on every corner some nights, police were sometimes overwhelmed. Several police commanders — who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the mass shooting — told The Inquirer that the department has drifted away from a bend-but-don’t-break formula that kept the peace, even on summer weekends that drew thousands to South Street: Handfuls of bike and patrol cops circulated continuously through the neighborhood, keeping intersections unblocked and pedestrians moving. Unruly behavior was stamped out quickly.
The change was in keeping with broader calls for badly needed criminal justice reforms, but some South Street business owners argue that a lack of consequences has led to a rise of aggressive behavior on the strip, like dirt bikes and motorcyclists riding on sidewalks, narrowly missing pedestrians. Driven in part by the pandemic, reports of crime along South Street between Broad and Front Street generally declined between 2019 and the start of this year. Like many retail corridors, thefts and robberies tend to make up the majority of the statistics. Prior to the mass shooting, there had been two shootings on South Street in 2022, while other corridors, like Kensington Avenue, have seen dozens more.
One high-ranking police official said South Street “probably” should have been closed off after the 11 p.m. shooting at Fourth and Bainbridge. “But then what do you do with all of those people? They’re not going home,” the official said. “That’s a call based on tactical command.” Mike Harris, the longtime head of the South Street Headhouse District, which represents 400 businesses, noted there were more officers than usual on the streets — “and this still happened.”
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