Nutter also announced that the city would double the funding provided to the witness assistance program of the District Attorney's Office.
When asked about this week's killing of Kensington store clerk Rosemary Fernandez-Rivera, a potential witness in a murder case who was shot by a gunman after being interviewed by detectives, Nutter said communities as a whole must stand up against criminals.
"We have to decide, as citizens . . . we're not going to be held hostage by these domestic terrorists in our city any longer," he said.
Nutter said he included money for more rewards for crime tips in this year's budget. He also has authorized Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey to immediately assign more officers to crime hot spots by using overtime funds.
Reinforcements are on the way. A class of 120 newly minted officers will start hitting the streets in March, and up to 100 additional officers will join the Police Academy in June.
Privately, however, members of the department said the 6,500-person department's staffing levels were so low that several more rounds of hires were needed to make an impact.
In 2006, the murder tally in Philadelphia climbed to 406, the highest in more than a decade. That year, 29 people had been killed by the end of January. The 2012 homicide tally stands at 31 as of Thursday evening.
