Craigsolve
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:03:33 -0800
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