Our Catholic police commissioner
By CHRISTIE L. CHICOINE
CS&T Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia’s new police commissioner, Charles
H. Ramsey, is a Catholic.
That background — combined with 40 years of policing — will
be crucial in helping him guide the long blue line in combatting the city’s
violent crime rate.
A crime emergency was declared for Philadelphia by Mayor Michael Nutter
on Jan. 7 — Nutter’s first day in office and Ramsey’s
first day on the job.
On Jan. 30, Ramsey submitted a crime-fighting strategy to Nutter for achieving
the mayor’s goal of reducing homicides by 30-to-50 percent during
the next three to five years.
Ramsey — who served as chief of police in Washington, D.C., from
April 1998 until his retirement in December 2006 — began his career
in 1968, as an 18-year-old Chicago police cadet.
“I was anxious to get back into policing,” said Ramsey, who
turns 58 on March 23. “I didn’t realize how much I would miss
it.”
As part of his crime-fighting blueprint for Philadelphia, Ramsey has directed
every commanding officer, inspector and chief inspector to submit a plan
for action with specific tasks, assignments, due dates and performance
goals by March 1.
“Philadelphia was the kind of challenge I was looking for,”
said Ramsey, a Chicago native who now resides in the West Mount Airy section
of Philadelphia. Currently he attends Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of
SS. Peter and Paul.
“It’s a great city,” although its violence is “just
absolutely unacceptable,” he said.
“There is a very high level of violence here,” he continued.
“There is a subculture that exists in the city where life has very
little, if any, meaning at all. That’s something that is very troubling,
and we have to find a way to turn it around.”
In addition to increasing police presence, Ramsey advocates a “stop-and-frisk”
policy, which some critics argue legitimizes racial profiling.
“Racial profiling is wrong — officers need reasonable suspicion
before they stop someone,” Ramsey said. “But the reality of
crime in our city is that African-Americans are disproportionately impacted
by crime — both as victims and offenders. A lot of the pockets of
crime are in our minority neighborhoods. We need to work very closely
with the law-abiding residents of these communities — which certainly
vastly outnumber the criminal element.”
Ramsey said he believes his biggest advantage in lowering crime is that
the community is tired of violence and wants to work with the police department
to make a difference.
“We’ve got a good department with good people,” he said.
“We’ve got an energetic and a visionary mayor. I think all
the pieces are in place. … All those things combined, we should
be able to turn the tide.”
Mobilizing both business and religious communities is a priority of the
commissioner. A police-clergy partnership, put in place in Washington
when he was commissioner there, proved to be effective in getting all
denominations and faiths involved in making the streets safer, he said:
“I think that did play a critical role in helping us bring crime
under control.”
Ramsey said he is looking forward to working with the Philadelphia Archdiocese
and all those who want to make a difference.
On Feb. 25 Bianca Dougherty, a senior at Little Flower Catholic High School
for Girls in Philadelphia, shadowed the commissioner as part of a Police
Athletic League project.
Ramsey described her as a “very bright young lady.” For Dougherty,
a highlight “was being called ‘Commissioner of the Day’”
and interacting with the people Ramsey was meeting: “Every hand
that the commissioner shook, I, too, was able to shake.”
Going to the scene of a crime gave her insight into what law enforcement
is about, and a new perspective on what police officers endure every day,
she said.
For him it was part of the day’s work.
Asked how he lives his Catholic faith on the job, the commissioner said:
“At the end of each day, if you’ve done the things that needed
to be done, but carried yourself in a way in which your family would be
proud — if they knew every single thing you did — then, I
think … you’re living your life in the way in which you ought
to.”
Ramsey’s family includes his wife, Sylvia, and their 21-year-old
son, Charles.
What’s on the commissioner’s daily prayer docket?
“I pray for the safety of, certainly, my family, but [also] all
the other families … to keep them safe from harm — and those
people who are out to do ill toward others, to somehow help them see the
light, so that they stop.”
Read Commissioner Ramsey’s crime-fighting strategy by visiting the
Web site of the Office of the Mayor at www.phila.gov./mayor.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215)
587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.
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