Homicides and shootings in Kensington each declined about 45% in 2024, compared to the year prior, and arrests for drug buyers nearly doubled.
Those were a few of the encouraging stats deputies of the Kensington Initiative shared on Monday, while touting their progress in combatting the neighborhood’s infamous open-air drug market.
“We have come a long way this year, but we have a long road to go,” Adam Geer, the city’s chief public safety officer, said Monday afternoon inside a room packed with neighborhood stakeholders at Impact Services’ A Street and Indiana Avenue property. “We acknowledge that, but we are in this fight.”
“We are here standing shoulder to shoulder, and we ain’t going nowhere,” he continued. “The early results are encouraging.”
When Mayor Cherelle Parker took office in January 2024, she promised to end Kensington’s open-air drug market and improve quality of life for the neighborhood’s residents. A little over a year later, those tasked with carrying out her plan shared their progress.
Drug dealing apprehensions jumped 58% in the PPD’s East Division after the department concentrated its narcotics operations in the area, which includes Kensington and the surrounding neighborhoods, according to a presentation from Deputy Police Commissioner Pedro Rosario.
Rosario said officers confiscated more than $40.7 million worth of drugs last year within East Division, including 2.4 million doses of fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that has driven the city’s overdose crisis.
In May, authorities swept a high-profile homeless encampment near Kensington and Allegheny avenues, and, a month later, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel deployed an entire cadet graduating class to the neighborhood. The extra manpower has allowed for 24/7 foot patrols, Rosario added.
Another encampment, under I-95 in Port Richmond, was cleared in November. That same month, city officials deployed a nuisance fire task force to extinguish small blazes set by people living on the street looking to keep warm.
The collaboration between the PPD, the Philadelphia Fire Department and the Department of Sanitation has since tackled more than 300 fires, according to the mayor’s team. Members of the task force have connected 170 people with services, according to the city.
More recently, in January, the Parker administration opened Riverview Wellness Village, an addiction recovery facility situated on the city’s Northeast Philadelphia jail campus. Combined with the opening of another site, Philly Home at Girard in Fairmount, the city created 500 new shelter and treatment beds in 2024, Geer told those gathered at Impact Services.
In recent weeks, the administration began piloting a Kensington “wellness court,” a fast-tracked criminal justice diversion program for people charged with minor offenses. A related support center is gearing up to open at B Street and Lehigh Avenue in conjunction with the initiative.
Police began experimenting with drones in October, and Kensington will be part of the pilot program, which Rosario described as a “game changer.” Law enforcement believes the devices will improve response times and increase officer awareness, he added.
Officials unveiled a data dashboard Monday that allows the public to track various metrics and aspects of Parker’s Kensington Initiative. The information is available at philly-stat-360.phila.gov/.
“This community has been struggling for a long time, and finally, I feel like there is some breathing room,” City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, whose district covers parts of Kensington, said Monday.
“For many years, things were promised to this community, and they weren’t delivered,” she added. “And for the first time in a really long time, we are seeing the fruits of their labor, the fruits of our labor.”
