At the Philadelphia Compact's Expert Forum on Crime held on March 7th at the University of Pennsylvania, Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Dan Romer of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania released the Compact's city-wide poll results of citizens' perceptions of the problem of crime in the city. Earlier Compact surveys have identified crime as the most important concern to city residents. This portion of our study focuses on solutions identified by 1820 residents of Philadelphia in a survey conducted between January 7th and February 28th. Respondents prefer prevention programs to more police Despite the emphasis on changes in police and legal practices, there is not wide support for increasing the size of the police force, at least not in comparison to programs to help youth avoid crime. Another approach to reducing crime that has received considerable attention would increase restrictions on the sale of handguns.
Residents have a more accurate sense of opinion on gun-sale restrictions.
Neighborhood differences in support of more police and restricted handgun sales are not great. Greatest support for hiring more police comes from Kensington and the Northeast. Support for restricting gun sales is fairly uniform across the city. LHK Partners of Newtown Square conducted the interviews. The prior survey was conducted using randomly selected telephone numbers with Philadelphia exchanges.