Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. plans to introduce a resolution today calling for body worn cameras for social workers on home visits, after the murder of a 10-year-old girl in foster care. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker signed an executive order on Tuesday creating an independent committee to review the city’s foster care system.
Jones announced the plan Tuesday night at a packed Philadelphia Police Department 19th District quality-of-life meeting in West Philadelphia. He said he and a colleague plan to introduce the resolution to increase accountability and oversight of children in foster care. FOX 29 reports the resolution is expected to be introduced Thursday. NBC10 reported the colleague is Councilmember Anthony Phillips.
The proposal would seek funding for body worn cameras that could document conditions inside foster homes and record conversations with children during visits. The cameras would be activated upon a visit.
“What we want is to work to fundraise to get the social worker to have cameras that are activated upon a visit so that they can memorialize the condition that the child lives in, what the child talks about in private away from the foster parents,” Jones said.
Jones compared the idea to policing. Philadelphia police officers already wear body cameras.
Jones also plans to pursue Council hearings on the Department of Human Services, saying the goal is solutions, not blame. He wants more social workers and smaller caseloads, and acknowledges that would take more funding. No dollar figure, caseload target, or hiring number has been reported.
The resolution follows the death of a 10-year-old in foster care in the legal custody of the Department of Human Services. Catholic Community Services handled case management, and Pennsylvania MENTOR was the certifying foster care agency. The child was last seen alive the morning of Thursday, Oct. 22, at her home on the 500 block of North Simpson Street, and was reported missing by her foster mother the following Monday, Oct. 26. Her body was found last week in the trunk of a car in Lindenwold, New Jersey, and the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide by blunt force trauma.
Foster mother Carprice Williams, 36, a fifth-grade teacher in the School District of Philadelphia, was arrested Nov. 4 and charged with murder and related offenses, including endangering a child, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. Philly Rhino covered her arrest on Nov. 6. Williams was the subject of a 2021 investigation after allegations she severely injured a 4-year-old child in her care, CBS reported, and that investigation never moved forward. A 2021 lawsuit alleged she beat and starved another child in the same home, and court documents said investigators had said she should not be a foster parent again. That lawsuit was settled in 2024, and the Department of Human Services has opened an administrative investigation.
The child lived in the 19th Police District, in West Philadelphia, not the Northeast, but the Council and mayoral actions are citywide.
On Tuesday, Parker signed an executive order establishing a Child Welfare Review Committee of up to 15 members, with 120 days after convening to report its findings and recommendations. It will examine how DHS and foster care agencies oversee placements, conduct visits, and coordinate services, including home selection, oversight, licensing, visitation rules, and agency contracts. Members are to include experts in child advocacy, social work, medicine, behavioral health, and law.
“This is a crisis of unimaginable proportions,” Parker said.
“The review required by law must take place, but I am requiring the city to do more. We must examine our foster care system thoroughly and independently, identify where it must improve and act to better protect our children,” Parker said.
The committee’s review is separate from the legally required Act 33 review of this death and from the ongoing police investigation.
“We will leave no stone unturned as we seek answers for what happened in this case, to understand more fully how it happened and to make any changes necessary to ensure that it never happens again,” Parker said.
The resolution has no public text or number yet. As of Thursday morning, it did not appear in the Philadelphia City Council record, and the minutes of today’s stated meeting had not been finalized.
