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I just don't think community policing can solve this problem either. I think the police are overwhelmed, poorly trained and poorly informed.
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All true.
How will city government, unable and unwilling to spend the cash required to correct personnel and intel deficits - to craft, in other words, a truly effective community policy approach - respond to building pressure to 'do something' about violent crime?
I predict a large scale deployment of video surveillance not unlike what you find in London (indeed, in many places in Britain). Wherever possible, these cameras will be linked to facial recognition systems. In some cases, cameras will be mounted on small, lighter than air vehicles stationed above "hot spots" - microwave or wifi will provide police with command and control.
Also, expect to see a localized version of "total information awareness" - that is, data mining of municipal databases hosting police records, juvenile offender information and profiles of substance abusers dependent upon Phila's Community Behavioral Health (CBH) system.
This information will be used to create a "pre-crime" style dossier, a super database of people algorithmically determined to be likely troublemakers.
I've worked on elements of this system. It's still in its infancy (we have a ways to go to reach the UK's electronic panopticon).
Nevertheless, it is coming to Phila; I assure you.
Indeed, this will be the West's (and later, much of the rest of the wired world's) response to real and imagined concerns. Budgets for smart policing will not be forthcoming. Budgets for creating a security SenseNet (to borrow from William Gibson) will grow and grow.
.d.