PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 The night shift begins for Officers Mike Wagner and Gage Wright one block from the Kensington Police District at Allegheny and Emerald Streets. A woman is passed out on the sidewalk, her posture and general appearance indicating she may need medical attention.<\/p>\n
This is not an uncommon sight in Kensington. Several people walk past without seeming to notice her. Wagner, 25, and Wright, 23, are charged with making sure she\u2019s not dying. In a city with more than a thousand overdoses a year, it is not a duty to be taken lightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cMa\u2019am, are you all right?\u201d Wright asks, putting on latex gloves. \u201cDo you want to go to the hospital?\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s stirring but not responding.<\/p>\n
\u201cMa\u2019am, you have to stand up so we know you\u2019re okay,\u201d Wagner says. Still no response. Wright has an idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cMa\u2019am, are you hungry?\u201d he asks. \u201cLet\u2019s go to the store and get something to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s not interested in food, but apparently understands they won\u2019t leave her alone until she demonstrates some degree of health, so she sits up with difficulty.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, ma\u2019am, we just wanted to make sure you\u2019re okay,\u201d Wright says.
She flops back over.<\/p>\n
The Kensington Community Revival Plan<\/p>\n
This is a routine Wagner and Wright will repeat at least a dozen times before the night is over. They are part of the community policing surge<\/a> that started last summer, one element of Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s Kensington Community Revival Plan<\/a> (KCR). She calls it a \u201cPIE\u201d strategy, for prevention, intervention and enforcement, and, for that last piece, she nearly doubled the number of officers in the district by assigning an entire Police Academy graduating class there. Wagner and Wright are in the second wave, the graduating class that started in February.<\/p>\n The approach has critics who argue that harm reduction \u2014 providing services such as clean needles and wound care \u2014 is more effective at solving the neighborhood\u2019s woes than enforcement. Data, though, show the results Parker is looking for: a 45% decrease in homicides, a 44% decrease in shootings, and overdoses are down by a third.<\/p>\n Still, there is no shortage of open drug use, discarded syringes, abandoned food, shuttered stores and people sprawled on the sidewalk or sometimes standing but drooping like a thirsty plant.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was shocking,\u201d Wagner recalls of his first tour of the neighborhood with veteran officers, \u201cjust seeing exactly what was going on and all these people that need help but don\u2019t yet want the help.\u201d<\/p>\n He and Wright have gotten used to it now: the distress, the misery, the collateral damage. They see it every shift, and every shift, they try to put a little bit of a dent in it. It is slow, occasionally frustrating, but ultimately rewarding work because they do see subtle progress.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel as though in a small way, we are helping the community,\u201d Wright says. \u201cI feel like small things matter and small things add up to bigger things. A couple years ago, you wouldn\u2019t be able to walk down the street. It\u2019s a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Wagner finds validation in the number of kids who played outside this summer, unworried by the kind of encampments and blatant criminality that long troubled the area. He also has faith in the \u201cPIE\u201d strategy.<\/p>\n \u201cOne day we were walking down Kensington and Somerset and Officer Wright was flagged down by one of the addicted population, saying that because of an arrest he made, her friend is clean now and no longer in Kensington,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n And so, on they go, after that first encounter, ready for whatever comes at them.<\/p>\n The officers are scanning the street to see where they\u2019re needed, but they\u2019re also listening to radios clipped to their shoulders. There\u2019s a report of shots fired. Police cars go whizzing past, sirens blaring. The radio bleats out an address for a man seen running and throwing something under a parked car. Bicycle cops speed past. A passerby tells Wright and Wagner someone is getting beaten up in a corner store. They rush there, but it\u2019s a false alarm. Their boss, Inspector LaVerne Vann, has tagged along. She calls these false reports \u201cdiversionary tactics.\u201d There\u2019s still a criminal element here, and they don\u2019t want the cops to stumble onto them, so they misdirect them. Or they call out warnings as the officers approach: \u201cUber.\u201d \u201cHondo.\u201d Or the reliable, \u201cYo!\u201d<\/p>\n On this particular night, on top of the normal chaos, the officers are distracted by a YouTuber named Speed. He is live-streaming his one-day visit to Philly and has told his 43 million followers that he will be going to Kensington. He\u2019s been attracting crowds all over town, and the officers keep checking his progress. They see him at the stadiums, then at Love Park. They\u2019re not sure what will happen when he gets to K&A, the notorious corner of Kensington and Allegheny.<\/p>\n For now, though, they continue their mission of interacting with the community. The principle of community policing is to build trust, to create allies in the quest for public safety.<\/p>\n A woman has fallen asleep in the sun and seems to be in distress. They rouse her with much effort. She says she\u2019s just thirsty. Wright gets her a Gatorade. She is clearly touched and asks for their names. Vann writes them down, with their phone numbers, and tucks the paper into the woman\u2019s pocket.<\/p>\n \u201cYou call them when you want to go get help,\u201d she says. \u201cNow you don\u2019t have any excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n As they round the corner, a young girl in a school uniform stops Vann to tell her someone tried to steal her headphones. Her ride home from the bus stop is late, so she\u2019s waiting alone. Vann says they\u2019re going to keep an eye on her. Her ride comes a minute later.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a sweet little girl,\u201d Vann says as she walks away. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t deserve this.\u201d<\/p>\n Children are a great motivator for the KCR. The plan envisions reclaiming McPherson Square \u2014 a park with a library and playground \u2014 for families in the area. It has long been a popular hangout for drug use, but Wright and Wagner are working on imposing limits. Rows of people still sit on the library steps and the low wall around the park, but sleeping in the grass will not be tolerated. \u201cThese kids should not be seeing this at all,\u201d he says. \u201cI mean, I\u2019m an addict, but they should not be seeing this. This neighborhood was so great back in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n Wagner is incredulous.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the problem right there,\u201d he says. \u201cHe acknowledges that it\u2019s a problem that he\u2019s in the park, but he\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n A pretext for gentrification?<\/p>\n The interactions are polite and respectful, but there is an underlying tension. The enhanced police presence inhibits the freedom with which drug use occurred here for many years, but even some drug users admit they feel safer.<\/p>\n Dominic Rodriquez, 46, embodies those mixed emotions. He was born and raised here, he says, and he likes having the cops around, but he is highly suspicious that there is an ulterior motive.<\/p>\n \u201cGentrification,\u201d he says in an ominous tone. \u201cThey\u2019re cleaning up vagrancy in the guise of helping people out, but it\u2019s really for gentrification. Why would you care about an impoverished area with the have-nots of society? They never cared about it before. But now there\u2019s money. That\u2019s the interest. Follow the money. See what ghost organizations are buying up property around here.\u201d<\/p>\n The fear that the area would gentrify if it reaches some minimal level of normality is not at all unreasonable. But Wright and Wagner have no stake in such an outcome. Their interest is purely public safety. In that, they are no different than the service providers and ad hoc volunteers who are drawn to Kensington by the desire to help.<\/p>\n When Wright and Wagner approach the most desperate situation they have seen so far this shift, there are a couple standing by, also trying to assist. The couple explains they put him into the rescue breathing position, on his side, but say he doesn\u2019t need an ambulance or Narcan.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you want to go to the hospital?\u201d Wright asks. The response is garbled but definitely negative.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t force you to go, but you need help,\u201d Wright says, at which point the man begins to cry, a guttural howl of anguish.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you would have seen me a year and a half ago, I was worse than that,\u201d the helper, a redhead with a bushy beard, says.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad you got better,\u201d Wright says.<\/p>\n \u201cI never thought I would,\u201d the redhead says. \u201cI wanted to die so bad. I know what he\u2019s feeling like right now, bro, and you know what? There\u2019s hope for him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is hope,\u201d Wright agrees.<\/p>\n Wright hands him some Narcan. \u201cIf anything happens, will you give us a call?\u201d ‘I didn\u2019t know it was like that’<\/p>\n Speed does eventually show up. It\u2019s about 9 p.m. A crowd of perhaps 50 or 60 fans has gathered at K&A. The cops stand watchfully nearby, but Speed has his own security. They surround him as he exits his limousine, looking decidedly uncomfortable, and almost immediately begins saying he has to get back to his tour bus.<\/p>\n The fans are cheering as he waves and smiles. One insistent young woman gets an autograph. Then he is off. The entire visit lasts about two minutes.<\/p>\n On his livestream, back in the car, driving away, he looks relieved. \u201cThat was crazy,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was insane. I didn\u2019t know it was like that. I did not know it was like that. I thought it was just called Zombie-land because\u2026\u201d He trails off. The show is over.<\/p>\n Wagner and Wright are there for the rest of the night, of course, and back the next day. And every workday since. They are assigned indefinitely to Kensington. And that is fine with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 The night shift begins for Officers Mike Wagner and Gage Wright one block from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":228582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-228581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115208057850151733","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cYou can\u2019t be sleeping here, man. It\u2019s for the kids,\u201d Wagner says as he rousts a few people, who move along without arguing. One man even embraces the effort.<\/p>\n
A man is passed out on the sidewalk, barefoot, blood on his limbs, but no obvious source of the bleeding. A pair of crutches is next to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n