(NewsReady.com) – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, played a big part in our country’s founding, but now its residents are suffering. They are dealing with a crisis stemming from drugs and guns. Now, the police commissioner has resigned.
On September 5, Mayor James Kenney (D) issued a press release announcing Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw would leave her position after three and a half years. Her last day on the job will be September 22. She’s moving to a new position as the deputy security chief of the New York and New Jersey Port Authority. First Deputy John Stanford will take the helm as interim police commissioner until the mayor names a permanent replacement.
Outlaw’s resignation comes just months before Mayor Kenney leaves office. David Oh, the Republican candidate to replace him, has made crime and drugs a central priority of his campaign. He recently suggested he would deploy drones to detect illegal drug use and other crimes on Kensington Avenue. The area is known as a popular place for drug users and criminals. It’s so well-known that video footage from the neighborhood was once used in a Mexican anti-drug video.
The police commissioner had a fraught tenure. In 2020, law enforcement officers hit protesters with rubber bullets and tear gas after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Outlaw defended her officers’ actions, but the city was later forced to pay protesters more than $9 million. She was also in charge during the police killings of Walter Wallace Jr. and Eddie Irizarry. The latter died in August 2023, and police allegedly lied about why an officer shot him.
Philadelphia has seen a frightening rise in homicides in recent years, including in 2021, when a record-setting 562 people were murdered, many of them with guns. Though they decreased slightly in 2022 and are expected to decrease more this year, it’s not enough.
Outlaw issued a statement saying it’s been her “honor and privilege” to serve alongside the Philadelphia Police Department.
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