Police officers are sent to Kensington to patrol

From Philly and the Pennsylvania suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what do you want WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

Philadelphia police plan to increase enforcement efforts in Kensington next week.

Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel confirmed Monday that 75 police cadet graduates graduating from the academy next week will be immediately deployed to what the commissioner calls the “Kensington area” to intensify enforcement efforts there.

“We’re going to go there and address the problems there,” Bethel said. “The level of drugs out there, the violence that’s going on there, and all the things that have basically held this community captive for a long time, we’re going to restore hope to a community that has lost hope.”

It’s been a month since the city cleared homeless encampments along Kensington Avenue, an area known for its widespread drug use.

“There is still a lot of work ahead of us. My team does not believe we can solve a problem that has existed for decades overnight,” Bethel said.