Former Stoneleigh Fellow and current Board Member Kevin Bethel has been selected by Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker as Philadelphia’s next police commissioner.
Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker will name Kevin J. Bethel as her pick for Philadelphia’s next police commissioner, according to a source with direct knowledge of the talks, ushering in a new era for one of the nation’s largest police departments.
Bethel, a former deputy commissioner and the current chief of school safety for the School District of Philadelphia, is expected to be announced Wednesday as the next head of the 5,500-member force. His appointment would come as the Philadelphia Police Department tries to navigate the city out of a three-year wave of gun violence while it has been gripped by low morale and a shortage of nearly 1,000 officers.
