During the week of the Martin Luther King Day celebration, our Philadelphia
Police Department initiated a series of community based meetings to
introduce their new Police Service Area concept and to recruit neighborhood
based input:
_http://www.phillypolice.com/news/police-service-area-psa-week-is-here/_
(http://www.phillypolice.com/news/police-service-area-psa-week-is-here/)
While the initial meetings were to be held with neighborhood based key
leaders, it is possible in some districts the outreach was too selective.
Thus, there will be a meeting tonight for residents who reside in one of
the four Southwest Police Department districts --the 12th, 16th, 18th and
19th, at 7 p.m. at the 19th District, 61st and Thompson. This meeting is
being held by new Southwest Division Inspector, Myron Patterson. Insp
Patterson
will introduce himself and talk about the new community policing
initiatives.
You may identify you PSA and it lead officer at:
_http://www.phillypolice.com/districts_
(http://www.phillypolice.com/districts)
Each PSA is lead by a Lieutenant and normally has a dedicated Sergeant for
each shift. Patrol officers are assigned to a specific PSA so they may
become familiar with the neighborhood, its businesses, residents, and the
residents with the police.
The original concept was developed in DC:
On May 2, 2004, the Metropolitan Police Department implemented a major
restructuring of its Police Service Areas (PSAs), a basic building block of
community policing in the District of Columbia. The goal of the restructuring
is to ensure better police services for DC neighborhoods by providing
greater flexibility in neighborhood patrols and by aligning PSAs more closely
with natural neighborhood boundaries.
You are encouraged to attend tonight's meeting and to actively participate
in regular meetings with your specific PSA command structure.
Ciao,
Craig
