PHILADELPHIA — The Kenney administration has instructed city personnel officials to use an existing waiver exception in city law to help fill incoming recruit classes for police and corrections officers.
City Council strongly supports the one-year residency requirement and voted 16-1 to approve Bill No. 200363 in 2020.
The purpose of the residency requirement is to change and improve the diversity of the Philadelphia Police Department and create a force that better reflects the culture of the city it is sworn to protect and serve.
Philadelphia is a “minority-majority” city, where about two-thirds of residents are non-white. Over the past three fiscal years (2019-2021), the city’s police force was on average, about 45 percent minority. This is not only significantly below city demographics–it is woefully short of the Department’s goal of 58 percent.
Some say the residency requirement hinders the Police Department’s efforts to recruit candidates to join the police force. However, the Department’s own statistics indicate that more than 2,500 active applicants have applied to join the police force. Is it too much to expect that Department leaders can find 100 candidates per recruiting class who are qualified residents of Philadelphia to join the force?
A more diverse Police Department will not be a “silver bullet” in curing its long-entrenched systemic issues, but it’s a step in the right direction. Does anyone believe that allowing the Police Department to continue its unsuccessful attempts at diversification will improve the situation? If they must look to hire from within the city’s borders, they have a chance at putting forward a department that better reflects the makeup of Philadelphia as a whole.
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