What to Know
- Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced the creation of the Carjacking Enforcement Unit which will focus on the prosecution of people accused of violent carjackings while also working with the Gun Violence Task Force.
- So far this year there have been more than 1,000 carjackings in Philadelphia.
- The city is funding the unit with $1.5 million over the next six months.
A rise in carjackings in Philadelphia is now the focus of a new unit in the District Attorney’s Office that will work with the Gun Violence Task Force.
So far this year there have been more than 1,000 carjackings in Philadelphia.
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
“Carjackings are not being done with a club,” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Thursday while announcing the new initiative. “Carjackings are being done with guns and there is an incredibly close connection between carjacking and car theft and shootings. We are seeing more and more and more that when there is a fatal shooting or a non-fatal shooting it is done in a car that does not belong to the people who are doing the shooting. It’s part of how they hide their identities.”
The Carjacking Enforcement Unit will focus on the prosecution of people accused of violent carjackings.
“The attorneys who are assigned to this unit are going to be taking a case from beginning to end,” Krasner said. “That’s not the normal process in a big city.”
The city is funding the unit with $1.5 million over the next six months. That decision followed conversations with city council members.
“Some of those conversations were difficult,” Philadelphia City Council Member Curtis Jones (D) said. “Some of those conversations were point blank critical. And we were in the room and we’re glad you weren’t.”
Jones, who serves as Chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, went into more detail about those conversations while speaking with NBC10’s Lauren Mayk.
“We decided we want more closures on cases,” Jones said. “They said, ‘We need more ability to process ballistics.’ So we found money for a new crime lab. They said, ‘We have too many cases per D.A.’ We said, ‘We’re going to find you resources.’”
The Carjacking Enforcement Unit will be led by Assistant District Attorney Helen Park. Assistant District Attorney Yasmine Finnegan will serve as the assistant supervisor of the unit and will focus on juveniles.
“The mission, as Helen and I see it, is that this will be a targeted, coordinated deep dive into a systematic problem that’s occurring in Philadelphia that’s plaguing our city,” Finnegan said.
Krasner also announced the resumption of the District Attorney’s Office’s Gun Crimes Strategies & Prevention Collaborative in which over a dozen prosecutors with the DAO’s Homicide and Non-Fatal Shooting Unit will be reassigned to Philadelphia Police divisions. The prosecutors will work with law enforcement, local government and community residents to “hold those responsible for shootings accountable, prioritize prevention, engage the community, and support victims of crime.”
As of Wednesday night, there have been 514 homicides in Philadelphia, down seven percent from the same time last year which ultimately had the highest number of homicides on record. Jones said the Council would like to see a larger drop in homicides next year with the amount of money the city gave to the new unit.
Jones also discussed analyzing programs to see if they were working and ending the programs that aren’t.
