(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania’s violent crime rates, although declining from pandemic highs, still present challenges for the state’s economy and public safety.
As the crunch of the 11-day fall session sets in, House Republican lawmakers said Monday that addressing the issue through legislative reform has only just begun.
“We know from the statistics, but more importantly from the experience and the news stories that crime, and even violent crime, in our communities is out of control,” said House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Quarryville. “From rural to urban Pennsylvania, no community has been spared from this crisis.”
Cutler’s comments cast doubt on recent media reports of falling crime rates, particularly in Philadelphia, where critics argue lax progressive-backed policies make the problem worse. Despite reports of double-digit declines in murders, rapes, robberies and assaults with guns down compared to 2022, he and other Republicans say the figures still eclipse pre-COVID 19 levels.
Underreporting, in general, also gives a false sense of security, said Rep. Craig Williams, R-Chadds Ford.
“What’s down is the reporting of crime,” he said. “And the reason for that is that people are very afraid of retaliation for having their name associated with the reporting of crime. We all know that in our experience that crime is out of control.”
That’s why Williams will soon introduce a plan to create a central reporting agency tasked with protecting citizens from retaliation for phoning in crimes. He also wants to force the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to honor undocumented migrants’ detentions, rather than asking taxpayers to “subsidize” services to support them.
Data is mixed about the connection between undocumented immigrants and crime rates. Critics argue existing information is incomplete, sometimes by design. Other analysts argue that data shows that many criminal incidents have declined despite an influx of migrants relocated to sanctuary cities, like Philadelphia, from the southern border.
Reports from other lawmakers across the country, however, cast even more doubt. John Fabbricatore, a U.S. Air Force veteran, retired ICE Field Office director, and current congressional candidate in Colorado’s 6th District, told The Center Square in June that gangs will set up in communities with large concentrations of people from their home countries and begin committing crimes there, then move outward.
There’s also a rise in what he calls “tourist burglars.” These organized criminal groups come primarily from Chile and other South American countries, entering the U.S. on tourist visas to commit large-scale retail theft, robberies, and home burglaries in affluent suburbs. They use a combination of Wi-Fi jammers, surveillance cameras, false identification, and rental cars to carry out their operations.
Since 2021, local police have responded to such crimes throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, including Bryn Mawr, Villanova, Newtown Square, Tredyffrin Township, Eastown Township, Willistown Township, Plymouth Township and Lower Merion.
“We subsidize this crime with our paychecks,” Williams said. “You think inflation is out of control, there’s a portion of that that’s related to retail theft, to online scamming, to a number of things where costs of goods are then passed onto you.”
Cutler said business thefts drive grocers and other retailers out of communities, creating food deserts and leaving less support for schools, law enforcement and emergency services. Seniors seek out assisted living facilities, unable to age in place amid skyrocketing property taxes.
“It’s exhausted police and prosecutors,” he said. “It’s exhausted local and state resources and it has exhausted our patience.”
Rep. Valerie Gaydos, R-Moon Twp., said establishing neighborhood watches could help ease the strain on law enforcement. She will also introduce a bill to reform bail for certain violent offenders, who shouldn’t be given a chance to commit more crimes post-arrest.
Pennsylvania’s high recidivism rate is in line with national figures. About 66% of prisoners released in 2008 were arrested within three years, and 82% within 10 years, according to a 2021 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics that pulled data from 24 states.
Not all of those arrests came from threats to public safety, however. A significant number were arrested for a parole or probation violation.
In recent years, state efforts have focused on diversion programs to keep people – who often struggle with drug addiction and mental illness – out of the criminal justice system altogether.
