Philadelphia’s faculty security chief named subsequent police commissioner

Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker has named Kevin Bethel, the College District of Philadelphia’s present chief of faculty security, as her new police commissioner.

Bethel has lengthy been a well-respected fixture in Philadelphia regulation enforcement and faculty security circles. Throughout his tenure within the faculty district, Bethel targeted on reforming the juvenile justice system, dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, and selling “trauma-informed policing.”

As a deputy police commissioner after which the district’s security director, he additionally developed a nationwide popularity for his work emphasizing prevention over punishment as an method to enhancing scholar conduct and self-discipline each out and in of faculty settings.

In his 4 years main faculty security for the district, “I imagine we’ve got made the faculties safer,” Bethel mentioned at his appointment announcement at Metropolis Corridor on Wednesday. “It’s unacceptable that some college students really feel unsafe going to and from faculty.”

That is Parker’s first mayoral staffing announcement, although she doesn’t formally take workplace till January. She mentioned that she selected Bethel from amongst three candidates chosen by a search committee headed by former police commissioner Charles Ramsay.

Deputy Chief of College Security Craig Johnson will function interim chief for the district whereas a search is performed for Bethel’s alternative, in keeping with the district.

“Chief Bethel is a category act, and I all the time felt very assured understanding that he was overseeing all efforts to create protected studying environments for our college students to think about and understand any future they need,” Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington mentioned in a press release Wednesday.

The Board of Training issued a joint assertion calling Bethel’s appointment “nicely deserved” and that his departure could be a “important loss” for the district.

Bethel’s faculty security legacy in Philadelphia faculties

A John Bartram Excessive College graduate, Bethel’s oft-repeated motto throughout his time within the police division and faculty district has been: “I didn’t change into a cop to lock up kids.”

Whereas on the police drive in 2013, Bethel mentioned he was “alarmed” by what number of college students had been being arrested within the metropolis underneath a “zero tolerance” coverage that noticed police known as on college students as younger as 10 years previous.

“I can’t lock up a 10-year-old youngster who comes to high school with scissors,” he mentioned.

He described his dismay at a college in Kensington that put bulletproof blankets on the home windows as a consequence of close by shootings.

“I lived it when children have been shot in entrance of our faculties,” he additionally recalled. “I by no means thought I’d take a job the place children could be killed on the doorstep of a college.”

With buy-in from district officers and others, Bethel created a diversion program for college students with no prior delinquency report who dedicated low-level offenses like combating or possessing a pocket knife. That program was praised on the time for considerably reducing the variety of college students arrested at school from almost 1,600 in 2013-14 to 251 in 2018-19.

Bethel has additionally labored to enhance the district’s weapons detection course of — a ache level that’s drawn public fury.

In 2019, outraged protesters shut down a Philadelphia Board of Training assembly after members voted to make steel detectors necessary in each district highschool. Within the years after, random wand screenings, X-ray machines, and different detection programs have been utilized in excessive faculties and a few center faculties.

Some dad and mom and group members have been essential of the practices, which they mentioned could make college students really feel criminalized in their very own faculties.

When he introduced new faculty security measures final August, Bethel mentioned the district could be introducing a brand new “minimally invasive gun detection system” in 14 center faculties. These detectors had been chosen as a result of district officers had been on the lookout for know-how “that didn’t add to the trauma of our younger folks,” Bethel mentioned on the time.

To make certain, the town nonetheless struggles with youth incarceration points. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in June that the town’s juvenile detention middle reached its highest inhabitants ranges ever, with 230 younger folks in custody. The Inquirer found overcrowding resulted in dozens of younger folks pressured to sleep in workplaces, gyms, or on the flooring of “filthy” cells.

As commissioner, Bethel mentioned Wednesday he would work to make law enforcement officials an important a part of communities, not simply enforcers of the regulation.

“I’m proud to be a cop,” he mentioned. “We’re not your enemy. We’re right here to serve, and I ask you to offer us that chance to do this. … Increase your voice when it must be raised, however let’s be a part of the group, let’s work with you.”

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior author for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, the place she covers Okay-12 faculties and early childhood training in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at [email protected].

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at [email protected].