SAFER STREETS

Philadelphia and many other cities have long been plagued by piecemeal drug
enforcement programs that have been long on promises but short on long-term
results. Every last one of those programs displaced drug dealers to
adjacent neighborhoods.

I give Mayor Street credit for taking a bold step with Operation Safe
Streets by taking drug enforcement citywide, drug corner by drug corner,
block by block, all at once.

Even though I don't live in a neighborhood where Safe Streets police are
deployed, I can see a positive impact on my neighborhood. I'm a Town Watch
volunteer and I live in one of those "adjacent neighborhoods."

Yes, some drug activity has been displaced. However, I've noticed that
police response times for 911 calls into my "adjacent" neighborhood have
improved. By temporarily suppressing violence that previously drew them
into more crime-ridden drug-infested neighborhoods, police are able to
answer calls in my neighborhood. In addition, police are paying more
attention to our drug complaints. Police recently have conducted several
successful raids in our neighborhood.

When police can suppress activity in the worst neighborhoods, they then
have more time and resources available to address the concerns of
"adjacent" neighborhoods.

If the Mayor's Safe Streets initiative fails it will be because residents
didn't take advantage of this golden opportunity to improve neighborhood
conditions while the police were holding back the drug dealers.

How effective is the Street Administration at mobilizing neighborhood
residents to tackle blight and crime is the real issue City Council should
zero in on. The costs assigned to Operation Safe Streets for police
overtime are what they are, and there seems little that City Council
oversight can change.

Everybody wanted a crackdown on crime and drugs. Now we have one, and it's
going to cost us.

Sam Ricks

Philadelphia