Philadelphia police commissioner Danielle Outlaw will be resigning from her post later this month, leaving the City of Brotherly Love reeling from a crime spike after three tumultuous years in office.
Over the course of her tenure, annual homicides in Philadelphia rose from 499 in 2020 to 516 in 2022. Before Outlaw’s arrival, between 2007 and 2019, murders in the city ranged between 246 and 391 per year.
During her time in office, Outlaw often found herself in the precarious position of negotiating demands from local law enforcement and Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters. In May 2020, after police used tear gas and other non-lethal measures to clear a city freeway of demonstrators, Outlaw sided with the Philadelphia Police Department over the objections of the City Council, which called the action “excessive,” “brutal,” and “unacceptable.”
The commissioner’s tenure, marred by fluctuating crime rates, put Mayor Jim Kenney under pressure as his final year in office comes to a close later this year. “Commissioner Outlaw has worked relentlessly for three and a half years during an unprecedented era in our city and a number of crisis situations, and she deserves praise for her commitment to bring long-overdue reform to the Department after years of racism and gender discrimination prior to her appointment,” the mayor said in a statement announcing Outlaw’s departure on Tuesday.
“We wish her success in her new position and thank Commissioner Outlaw for her dedication to serve the residents of Philadelphia.”
Kenney touted Outlaw’s success in taking illegal guns off the street and “clearance rates” – a measure of crimes solved – in his announcement. “As weak gun laws in Pennsylvania continue to allow illegal and legal guns to infiltrate our city, the Commissioner and her team have stayed focused on new approaches to manage the gun violence crisis,” Kenney added.
“During the Commissioner’s time as leader, a record-number of guns have been recovered, clearance rates have improved and non-fatal shootings and homicides have decreased at a rate double the rate of some of the other major U.S. cities that have also seen decreases. Even with these successes, we continue to face the challenge of more guns on the streets than ever – but we’ve been able to decrease shootings and homicides and I give the Commissioner and her team credit for making that happen.”
Under Outlaw’s leadership, the police department also lost a $1 million judgment after a federal jury ruled that two female officers were subjected to repeated sexual harassment.
Outlaw is bound for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Kenney announced First Deputy John Stanford Jr. as interim police commissioner.