Incoming Philadelphia mayor taps the city's chief of school safety as next police commissioner

Philadelphia Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker, who won her post by promising gun-violence-weary residents to get tough on crime, on Wednesday selected longtime police official Kevin J.

Bethel to become the next police commissioner of the nation's sixth-most populous city.

The move is Parker's first major personnel decision in a heavily Black city where her campaign tried to connect with voters who are increasingly worried about public safety as well as quality-of-life issues, from faulty streetlights to trash collection. On the stump, Parker argued that her mayoral administration can both invest in policing and address broader societal problems at the same time.

In an interview with ABC Philadelphia announcing the decision, Parker said Bethel is "a leader who is not afraid to make the tough decisions that we need to bring some order back to our city."

Bethel, 60, is a former deputy police commissioner in Philadelphia who, since 2019, has served as the chief of safety in the city's school district, where Bethel earned a reputation as a reformer interested in breaking the school-to-prison pipeline in the majority Black district.

In 2008, Bethel became a deputy police commissioner in charge of patrol operations in the city, and in 2016, went to work for the nonprofit Stoneleigh Foundation, where he worked on policies to create alternatives to sending juveniles into the criminal justice system.

During a press conference Wednesday, Bethel described himself as data-driven, saying that will guide where to put police officers and direct efforts.