Officers from the 18th Police District will be visiting homes and businesses in the district tonight to share information about crime prevention.

According to the PhillyPolice Blog, officers will particularly focus on the area from Baltimore Avenue to Cedar Avenue, 57th Street to 62nd Street.

The tools they will talk about include Operation Safe I.D., which was put in place to help prevent burglaries and thefts and the department’s SafeCam project, which allows residents and businesses to register security cameras with the police department.

Longtime resident Fran Byers (center) during the re-opening of Clark Park last year.

A piece of advice for would-be purse snatchers: Don’t mess with the lady who organizes the meet-and-greets with the police.

Plain-clothes officers nabbed two teenage purse snatchers on bikes after they grabbed a shoulder bag from longtime resident Fran Byers near 48th and Baltimore at about 2 p.m. on Monday. That’s the same Fran Byers who organizes the monthly community meeting with officers from the University City Division of the 18th Police District. In fact, she was passing out flyers for the meeting when it happened. The teenagers rammed Fran from behind then grabbed her bag, pulling it so violently that her shoulder was dislocated, according to friends.

Fran won’t be at tonight’s meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. at the usual spot in the basement of the Calvary Center for Culture and Community (801 S. 48th St.) The meetings provide an opportunity for residents to share information and concerns with police about crime and neighborhood issues.

An armed suspect was arrested after police chased him for several blocks on Saturday night. The man was pulled over at approximately 7:30 p.m. for an illegal lane change and fled on foot, police said. Here are some details submitted by a neighbor who lives nearby (confirmed by police).

Dozens of police officers surrounded the block of Farragut St (between 46th & 47th Streets). …They chased, tackled, and arrested an armed suspect who was on foot and attempted to get away through the back alley of several of the buildings closer to Locust St. One couple said that they saw the suspect at their back window before he was tackled. …The police were still searching for the weapon after the arrest and about 20 minutes later, a fire truck assisted the Philadelphia Police Department to search on the roof of several buildings close to where the arrest was made.

During the foot pursuit the suspect was holding a black semi-automatic handgun, according to police. The gun has not yet been recovered.

Police and local clergy members started going door to door talking to residents in an effort to tackle crime in the area. Last night they were particularly targeting the 19th Police District, ABC6 reports. The goal of this new initiative is to let residents in high crime areas know about what’s happening in their neighborhood, to hear from them about trouble spots and to see what police can do to help. “We want to know from residents if they’re having any problems; poor lighting, abandoned vehicles, vacant property,” Inspector Dennis Wilson told ABC.

Police are also talking to neighbors-property owners about what they should do to protect their property more effectively and encouraging businesses to install surveillance cameras and to register them with the city.

Next week the police are supposed to knock on doors of the 18th District‘s residents.

A reader, Rachel, emails that her roommate’s bike (pictured below) was stolen yesterday from their house near 48th and Springfield:

Someone walked into our house yesterday afternoon when the door (sadly) was not latched and stole my roommate’s bike from our foyer. He commutes to work with it and it’s a really sharp looking fixed gear – we’d love to get it back to him… It’s an Origin-8 frame. Weinmann dp18 rims, silver MKS track pedals. Another neighbor let us know his lock and helmet where on the ground around the corner from our place, where someone clearly ditched them.

The bike owner filed a police report and let the local bike shops know and hopes it will turn up.

A resident helped prevent burglary the other night by reporting suspicious activity on his neighbor’s porch.

On Tuesday, at approximately 12:10 a.m., he was driving on the 800 block of S. 48th Street looking for a parking space when he saw a man standing on the porch of one of the houses, police said. The neighbor knows the owners of the property and thought the person’s activities were suspicious. When the man opened the window and started climbing into the house the neighbor called the police.

Two police officers were nearby and quickly arrived at the location. They caught the suspect near the front windows of the home, both of which were pushed open, and took him in custody. Police say that one of the windows had an air conditioning unit that was pushed in. Nothing was taken from the house.

According to police, the suspect is a known burglar in the area. “Witness did an incredible job. Noticed a stranger on his neighbor’s porch and made the right call,” tweeted Detective Joe Murray from the Southwest Detectives.