About 100 West Philadelphia residents packed the basement of the Calvary Center tonight to talk to police and University City District (UCD) officials about how to curb crime in the neighborhoods west of 40th Street.
The regular monthly meeting, which usually attracts less than a dozen people, was standing-room-only tonight as residents questioned police about topics ranging from the effectiveness of plain-clothes officers to the funding of a campaign for more porch lights. Police and UCD officials called on residents to help keep neighborhoods safe by requesting more walking escorts and calling police when they see suspicious activity.
Neighborhood organization was a consistent theme of the meeting.
“We have to organize as a community,” said resident Karen Allen. “Otherwise we will be picked off one by one.”
The increased attendance at the monthly meeting with police was in response to the rape and robbery on Tuesday night near 48th Street and Springfield Avenue.
Many residents who attended the meeting wanted to talk about specific issues. Several were concerned about the area near 48th and Baltimore. A woman who lives at 800 S. St. Bernard St., a small side street near 49th and Baltimore, said she has seen an increase in criminal activity on her street, including three robberies earlier this week.
“It feels like a battle zone with kids running up and down our street with guns,” she said.
Lt. Brian McBride, who heads the Philadelphia Police Department’s University City unit, said that officers have been active in the neighborhood and made arrests in those cases.
“It’s been a battle over there,” he said. You’re right. We’re working very hard on it.”
McBride said that the department has employed a strategy that includes several plain clothes police officers in areas beyond 40th Street.
But several residents were concerned that there were no longer enough uniformed UCD bike patrols further out in the neighborhood.
“The change I see is that at night they are concentrated around 40th and Walnut,” said one person at the meeting. “It’s like if you sneeze in that neighborhood then, boom, you’re done.”
Matt Bergheiser, UCD’s executive director, said more patrols have been stationed near 40th and Walnut to help combat the rash of flash mobs last month. That area, intelligence showed, was a possible target, he said.
Bergheiser said that UCD has performed target policing before, including a crackdown near the 46th and Market El stop, which had seen an increase in crime earlier this year. Police targeted a wall near a residential area bordering the El stop and deployed more plain clothes officers. They have taken a similar approach to the increased crime below Baltimore Avenue.
“I know it’s not as visible,” Bergheiser said. “But it’s out there.”
That deployment is part of an ongoing strategy to address crime, he said “We look at every single crime every single week to try to stay ahead of the trends,” said Bergheiser.
One resident was concerned that the area south of Baltimore Avenue near 48th Street was targeted because it was on the border of police districts – that there was an “escape route” where police from different districts would not overlap. McBride said police nearby, regardless of the district, would respond to an emergency.
“In an emergency, all bets are off,” he said. “Any police can go anywhere.”
McBride advised residents at the meeting to report suspicious activity. Some people at the meeting said that in a diverse neighborhood suspicious activity was often hard to pinpoint. One person raised a specific example: He was on a trolley when he overheard a group of teens talking about the best way to rob someone at night. McBride advised him to call it in.
“On the off chance that it was a threat,” he said, “I would step off the trolley and call 911 and someone would be dispatched.”
What became clear in the meeting, though, is that people in the neighborhoods have been reluctant to report “suspicious activity.” There are likely several reasons for that. Many people are new to the neighborhood and so are still getting accustomed to what is “normal.” Also, “suspicious” is to judge.
But McBride, Bergheiser and the other speakers offered some concrete advice:
• Keep your porch light on if you have one. It costs about $3 a year to keep a 100-watt bulb on from dusk until dawn.
• Trim big bushes back. It sounds trivial, but police have noticed that in West Philly would-be robbers hide in overgrown bushes.
• Walk confidently. Beware that ear buds and headphones make you vulnerable, as does carrying lots of stuff.
• Look for light. As we know, light is our friend.
• Don’t be afraid to call the UCD ambassadors. Yes, those folks on bikes with the yellow shirts will walk you places at night. One of the folks at the meeting said that there are 12,000 calls for them near the Penn campus and “not so many” past 40th Street. They patrol out to 50th Street and usually arrive within 5 minutes. They will introduce themselves and be friendly. Call them. The number is 215-387-3942.
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