Mayor hits road with ‘war on crime’
By R.A. WALKER rwalker@sungazette.comArticle Photos
Campana traveled to the “City of Brotherly Love” and met with its new mayor, Michael Nutter.
The trip was the kickoff of a week that will climax Friday when Campana hosts a “crime summit” at City Hall for local law enforcement, municipal officials and crime watch coordinators.
According to Campana, he and Nutter met for about two hours to discuss their anti-crime initiatives and how the two cities can help each other on crime issues that — despite vastly different populations — often mirror each other.
Traveling with Campana were Police Chief Gregory Foresman, City Council President J. Marlyne Whaley, former Police Chief Curley Jett, the city’s volunteer community relations and crime watch coordinator, and Lorena Beniquez, the mayor’s economic development coordinator and director of media relations.
Campana said he and Nutter covered a wide range of topics, including crime prevention initiations being considered or done in both cities such as police surveillance camera in high crime areas, community policing and the need to recruit more minority police officers.
“It was a terrific meeting,” Campana said. “He and I agree very much.”
According to Campana, Nutter said he also agreed “to communicate as much as possible” and accepted an invitation to visit this city in the future.
“He and I are on the same page,” Campana insisted.
The mayor hopes to follow up with a still-to-be scheduled visit with the mayor of Newark, N.J., and a return trip to Philadelphia to visit its police commissioner.
Campana also plans to move forward with implementation of a “crime-fighting strategy” he has named “Zero Tolerance” and shared a three-page outline of the plan with the Philadelphia mayor. He plans to distribute other copies to those in attendance at City Hall on Friday.
The Friday “summit” seems to mirror one section of Campana’s outline — “collaboration” — and invitations have been extended to police and security personnel at both city colleges, county and municipal officials and state and local police in the area.
According to Campana, the meeting will begin at 9 a.m. on the third floor of City Hall but will not be open to the media or general public, despite the presence of elected officials.
He said admittance will be limited because the session is a collaboration with the State Attorney General’s Office drug division and may involve confidential material.
About 30 people already have indicated they will attend the session, and Campana said he checked with the city solicitor and was advised the session could legally be closed to the media and public.
Campana said his discussions with Nutter covered everything from strategies aimed at getting guns off the streets to crime mapping and programs to reach “children before they make bad decisions.”
“Anything’s on the table,” he said of the open-ended dialogue with Nutter about how the two cities, in their own ways, can put an end to violence, drugs and crime.
“No one’s immune,” he said.
