Police Chief Pierre Ritter, COO Bob Philbin and Mayor Linda Thompson at this morning’s press conference.
The city will begin cracking down on crime and blight in Safe Zone 6, Mayor Thompson announced this morning at a press conference in City Hall.
The Neighborhood Safety Zone program, launched in February, aims to reduce crime by directing the efforts of a team of officials—including cops, code officers, social workers and sanitation workers—at specific neighborhoods.
Safe Zone 5, which was announced on May 20, centered on Hall Manor, a housing project at South 17th and Hanover Streets. Since Zone 5 was announced, the mayor said, 11 traffic citations were issued and 33 warrants were served in the area for misdeeds ranging from parole violations to theft by unlawful taking and public drunkenness.
Thompson also reported that 1 1/2 tons of garbage were removed from the area, 44 streetlights repaired and 13 properties inspected.
“No firearms were removed this time, which was surprising,” Thompson said. “Not that there are none, but none were confiscated.”
The Neighborhood Safety Zone program has at times had something of a confused execution. Safe Zone 2, for instance, at 14th and Vernon Streets, was erected one afternoon in late March and dismantled an hour and a half later. In addition, the targeted areas were initially announced in advance, but are now concealed from the public, to maintain an “element of surprise,” according to Thompson.
But now, she said, the program is running smoothly. “It works. It’s a new and improved way of building and rebuilding the neighborhood.”
Asked about recent trends in violent crime—the city saw its 11th homicide of 2013 last Saturday—Thompson suggested that she was not overly concerned.
“Some of our homicides are unpreventable,” she said. She pointed out that this year’s homicides so far have involved victims and perpetrators who knew each other and often were the result of domestic disputes. She cited one murder that was the outcome of a fight inside a home. “No amount of cops would have prevented that,” she said.
