A large crowd greeted Captain John McCloskey at the PSA1 meeting at Aria Hospital on Thursday night. He clearly knows the geography of Frankford crime. All categories of crime are down in the 15th district with the exception of burglary.
On some specific issues:
- Foot patrols which had been going all the way down to Church Street and now ending at Orthodox Street. The reason is that the crime drives the patrols. He concentrates manpower where the crime has been.
- Residents asked why the Subway and other take out food stores are open all night. If they are located in a commercial area there is no legal reason that they can be shut down. Those that are in residential areas are seeing the police come in if they are open after 11PM.
- They are continuing to keep the pressure on the prostitution in the area. There have been stings set up to arrest the users of the service and this is a big deterrent since they money and car of the guy soliciting the prostitute are confiscated and usually not returned for a month. Prostitutes arrested will only be held and then released the next day.
- The dollar store next to McDonalds is used by drug dealers. The police are aware of this and dealing with it.
- Residents of the 4700 block of Griscom Street discussed the drug problem on that block.
- Northwood residents discussed the problem with squatters on the 1200 block of Arrott Street. The captain was familiar with the issue and had been there to investigate. Based on information provided by the residents, they will make another visit soon.
- Folks from the Mayfair Town Watch asked for more patrols up between Princeton and Bleigh on Frankford Ave. The homeless, prostitutes and drug users are getting out of hand. They believe that the pressure down here in Frankford may be driving some of the traffic further up into Mayfair. The captain said he would look at deploying some manpower to deal with the situation.
The next meeting of PSA1 will be on September 26th at 7PM at Aria Hospital.
