Philadelphia Police Will Release Criminals Who Commit Certain Non-Violent Crimes During Coronavirus Outbreak

According to local Fox affiliate in Philadelphia, Philadelphia police officers have been instructed to stop making arrests for certain non-violent crimes during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said this temporary policy “does not mean the department is turning a blind eye to crime,” the report adds.

This is the dumbest move that I have seen in the coronavirus era.

According to Steve Keeley at FOX 29, these the non-violent crimes include the following:

– All narcotics offenses

– Theft from persons

– Retail theft

– Theft from auto

– Burglary

– Vandalism

– All bench warrants

– Stolen auto

– Economic crimes

– Prostitution

If you remember, this is the same city that is building a safe injection site. Bring your drugs, and we will make sure you don’t die shooting the poison into veins. 

Senator Ted Cruz commented on the issue: “For the criminals in town, good to know. For the citizens of Philly, not so much.”

For the criminals in town, good to know. For the citizens of Philly, not so much. https://t.co/z4N2cZHyqw

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 18, 2020

The notice from the city, states that this new procedure is effective Tuesday, March 17, 2020. What happens when an officer comes in contact with a person committing one of these crimes? The officers will:

“Temporarily detain the offender for the length of time required to confirm identity (this may require the deployment of mobile fingerprint scanners).”

“Prepare all relevant paperwork”

“RELEASE OFFENDER”

“Submit all paperwork to the detective division of occurrence.”

WHAT THE ACTUAL H*LL is going on here!?

In what reality is it a good idea to tell the criminals in your area that the government will no longer be arresting them?

Don’t worry y’all; they are going to get their information and possibly their fingerprints. *roll my eyes* NO. This isn’t going to end well!

I get the fact that they are trying to stop the spread of coronavirus, but this is not the answer. I also understand that as things get worse, emergency personnel like EMS, firefighters, and police are going to need to address more important issues than if someone wrote a bad check.

Think about prostitution offenders; most of the women that are prostitutes in large cities are victims of human trafficking. Sometimes getting arrested is the only way these women get pulled out of the situation they are forced into. Could you imagine wanting to get out of the sex slavery you are in, and the only way is taken away and just got broadcasted for their offenders to know there are no real repercussions?

Any theft of any kind should be arrested immediately no matter what. Do you know what large groups of hungry people do in times of crisis? They tend to loot and riot. Do you know the deterrent for someone that wants to loot or riot in times of crisis? Yeah, you guessed it, getting arrested.

When the nation is going on lockdown the only thing that is going to keep our nation intact is enforcing the law of the land. And if you are going to stop enforcing these crimes don’t broadcast it so that the criminals of your city stop hiding.

More from Philadelphia Magazine:

After a firestorm erupted on social media once the message got twisted into something along the lines of “Philadelphia police will no longer arrest criminals,” new Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw (glad you took this job yet?) took to Twitter after midnight to clarify the policy and offer some explanation.

This is what she wrote:

To be clear, the Philadelphia Police Department is not turning a blind eye to crime. Persons who commit certain non-violent offenses will be arrested at the scene. Once their identity has been confirmed, they will be released and processed via arrest warrant. This is similar to the “summons process” that is utilized in many other counties throughout the Commonwealth. An officer still has the authority to utilize discretion, and take an offender into physical custody for immediate processing, if the officer and supervisor believe the individual poses a threat to public safety.

In order to balance this approach, personnel from several plain-clothes units have been assigned to patrol duties to increase police presence and deter crime twenty-four hours a day.

This temporary response model was implemented to protect our officers, and the communities we serve, from becoming infected or spreading Covid-19. Additionally, these protocols allow us to adjust to the changing availability of resources within other areas of the criminal justice system. To reiterate, criminal offenders will be held accountable for the crimes they commit.