How local governments are partnering with crime scene cleanup companies

How local governments are partnering with crime scene cleanup companies

The morning after her grandson was gunned down just steps from her front door, Addie Dempsey stepped outside and saw the blood still there, dark and unmoving. Raheem Hargust was 36. He had died the night before on a South Philadelphia sidewalk.

In the quiet that followed, no officials came to clean the scene. No city crew arrived. So Dempsey, 76, filled a bucket with bleach and water and began to scrub.

She was not alone. A doctor from across the street came out to help, and neighbors followed. Together they worked in low voices, wiping away the carnage and sweeping the blood toward the gutter like storm debris.

It was not the first time Dempsey had done this. On her block, too many families carry the same unspoken