POLICE

• The Philadelphia Police Department will have nearly 7,000 sworn officers when the last of the new hires paid for by the federal Crime Bill join this spring.
• The number of officers has increased by 500 in the Rendell years.
• In the 1970s, the size of the uniformed force peaked at 8,500.
• The city lists 5,927 officers as assigned to "on-street" operations, but that includes all officers assigned to the 23 police districts, no matter their duties.
• About 57 percent of officers actually are on "street duty." Special squads, like narcotics and SWAT teams, account for 18 percent.
• The Crime Bill enabled the city to hire 753 officers, whose salaries it will have to begin fully funding by 2002, at a cost of $46.4 million a year.
• The Narcotics Strike Force has 150 officers; the new Rapid Response Team that rotates into hot crime spots has 100.
• Philadelphia ranks third in officers-per-resident among America’s 10 largest cities. Chicago and New York rank ahead, but New York does only because its force includes transit and housing police, which are separate here.
• Civilians hold about 22 percent of positions in the police department.

• The city Fire Department budget for 1998 was $131 million.
• It fought 2,859 structure fires in 1998, down from 4,636 in 1990.
• Fire deaths dropped from 109 in 1990 to 53 in 1998.

• Average daily census in city prisons
  • 1998: 5,753
  • 1997: 5,694
  • 1996 5,341
• Number of GED diplomas attained by prison inmates, 1998: 375