Frankford Community Blog | Local News, Events, Community Resources
Ronald Ryan. field coordinator for Town Watch Integrated Services, spoke at the 15th District PSA1 meeting on October 22nd. He gave a good presentation of what is required and how to train and recruit. A core group of some in attendance scheduled a planning meeting to get the project moving.
The next PSA1 meeting is scheduled for November 19th at 7 PM at Aria Hospital.
Lt. Duane Gordon talked at the 15th District PSA1 meeting on Augut 27th about the benefits of Town Watch groups in the city as a town prevention tool. He noted that the other areas of the 15th district have town watch groups but PSA1 is lacking. Therefore, the police will meeting with Representative Dawkins and Kim Washington at the CDC to explore establishing one or more Town Watch groups.
What type of Town Watch to be established is yet to be determined. They come in many varieties, ranging from folks who just look out their window to groups who do nightly patrols. Further news will be forthcoming at the next PSA meeting and a call for volunteers will go out.
Lt. Gordon ran through the statistics for the most recent period. As we noted in an earlier post, burglary is up significantly over past months. Keep your eyes open and report any suspicious activity to 911.
The next PSA1 meeting will be held on September 24th at 7 PM at Aria Hospital.
There were 30 people at the 15th District PSA1 meeting on May 28th which is a great turnout for this event. Unfortunately a major issue of discussion was the lack of police participation at the meeting. Residents came ready and willing to talk crime and provide information but it was not until about 7:40 PM that Sargent Ammons arrived, having been summoned on his day off when someone realized that the meeting was not being covered. Lt. Gordon was on vacation.
In the absence of police officers, Assistant District Attorney Jackie Coelho listened to residents issues and offered advice and suggestions.
Questions put to the DA were related to what does it take to shut these properties down where drugs are sold. Her answer is a conviction. The owner of a deli who is in jail awaiting trial for selling drugs out of the deli. The deli continues in operation and drugs continue to be sold. Until he is convicted of a crime, no property confiscation will happen.
Coelho makes a good point however in that getting a conviction may result but then getting a sentence that will keep the dealer in jail for a substantial time is something else. Judges have latitude in sentencing. They may look at the defendant and see a guy trying to make a few bucks and didn’t kill anybody so he may get the minimum. To show judges that the community cares about the issue, people from the community have to take the time to attend the trial and testify to the damage the defendant has done to the neighborhood. She did commit to the community that she will pay special attention to drug cases involving Frankford to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Sargent Ammons will report on the issues raised at the meeting to Lt. Gordon and perhaps next month we can get a response on some of those issues.
Events to keep in mind are the Frankford Civic meeting on June 3rd and the PDAC gun buy back on June 27th. The PSA1 meeting is scheduled for the 4th Thursday of each month. The next one will be on June 25 at Aria Hospital at 7 PM.
There was a small turnout of residents February 26th at the PSA meeting but the police were there in force. Captain McCloskey, New Lt. Gordon, Officer Lewis, Community Relations officer Jacobs and SEPTA Sgt. Cavalarro were all present.
The Frankford Deli, despite being a hub of drug sale activity is sill open. You might think that finding a half million dollars of pot on the premises would raise some red flags with the DA and L&I so that it should be put out of business would be enough. No, not in Philadelphia. It usually takes a few gallons of innocent blood on the streets.
The 1600 block of Foulkrod is still drug city. Suburbanites continue to fuel this business. They come to Frankford for our high quality merchandise. At one time it was textiles but now its marijuana and WET. The salesmen are often juveniles who have an easier time getting out after arrest. Its also no problem replacing them.
The 5000 block of Griscom continues to be plagued by residents of three properties using, selling and otherwise being substandard neighbors.
In Northwood, the Ad Hoc mobile used car lot continues to play hide and seek with their cars, stashing them on local streets. The police are working to have ore of them towed. That does put a dent in their operation but they continue to come back again and again. You have to admire their tenacity.
General discussion about crime prevention the officers brought up surveillance cameras. They believe it would be helpful to have more cameras in the businesses on the 4700 block of Frankford Avenue. As officer Lewis said, back in the old days, if you asked somebody for information they would often say meet me around the corner. These days people are afraid to talk about anything at all. The cameras kind of get people off the hook. They are always on and always recording. The police look at the video and the business owner never has to say a word. A sub committee of the Frankford Civic is working toward the goal of educating business owners about the benefits of going with the SafeCam program. Part of the cost of installation can be reimbursed by the city.
If you noticed the police car on the corner of Arrott and Penn, it is there to keep an eye of a problem area and is also supporting a foot patrol.
So far this year – two homicides with one of the perpetrators under arrest. There are some others pending.
The next meeting of the PSA1 group will be on March 26th at 7PM at Aria Hospital.
The July PSA meeting scheduled to be held at Aria Hospital on Thursday, July 24th was cancelled by the police. They say it had been scheduled to be held on July 17th. This was a major disappointment to the community since they were expecting to hear followup to the many issues raised at the June meeting.
According to the 15th district web site, the next PSA1 meeting is scheduled for Friday, August 29th at 7PM at Aria Hospital.
