“This is a game that’s being played,” Evans said. “The Republicans were in charge for 12 years, and in the time that Perzel was [House] speaker, he never passed a bill like this.”

Evans also had a question for Deon:

“In the entire time that Deon’s been on the SEPTA board, has he ever put up the idea of more cops? I would argue that they [Perzel and Deon] are not serious.”

Evans said that he believed the state had already done its job in providing funding to the city for more police officers and that he had no plans to move the legislation.

Because of his influence over the state budget, Evans said, the city has 260 more police officers – 100 from last year’s budget, at least 60 from the redeployment of state police officers, an additional 100 in the current budget.