The Special Council on Gun Violence is an administrative figure recently created by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, who has placed Charles Ramsey at the head of this agency, an experienced police officer with a tradition in the state.
Wolf has given Ramsey the status of advisor and coordinator, two conditions that place him at the top of the pyramid that the governor wishes to construct, in order to reduce the dangers of gun violence in the second state of the Union.
Last week, Governor Tom Wolf offered as an immediate response the creation of the Special Council on Gun Violence, a body that will develop guidelines to be used by state police and other agencies under its command, to focus greater efforts on the treatment of gun violence.
The shooting of at least six injured police officers in Nicetown-Tioga, Philadelphia, set the Pennsylvania government machinery in motion and many analysts claim that the Council has in Charles Ramsey, a star in terms of security.
Violence will be his business
Ramsey will lead a new department that will address three kinds of violence: community gun violence, mass shootings, and domestic gun violence and suicides.
The position of the uniformed veteran is supported by a personal record that makes him the best option for the situation that the Governor of Pennsylvania wants to have under control.
Ramsey led the Philadelphia police force under Mayor Michael Nutter for eight years. Previously he was police chief in D.C. In charge of a tough job, overseeing regular city poicing, in addition to federal stuff, like terrorism threats and security for the presidential inauguration, he lasted just as long.
Philadelphia with Ramsey on command, showed a remarkable change. Under his policing, the City of Brotherly Love experienced a 37 percent decline in the murder rate, from 391 homicides in 2007 to 248 in 2014. The latter was the lowest recorded since 1967.
A familiar face in the country
There are many reasons to say that Charles Ramsey is known on the national stage, but the most positive is that he was chosen by President Obama in 2014 to lead a task force on policing in the 21st century. In 2017 he became a regular CNN commentator.
For the locality is fresh his activity as a commissioner of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, in addition to being a visiting fellow at Drexel´s Urban Innovation institute and a public safety consultant in Wilmington.
Ramsey´s new special council will meet in the next 60 days to start the development of a community engagement strategy. It will also review current background check and practices to keep weapons away from dangerous people.
Among Ramsey’s requirements is also the development of a dashboard for violence data to better share information statewide and strategies to reduce violence in the future.
Translated by: José Espinoza
Noticias Newswire
