15th Police District Petition--Split the 15th!

Over the course of the last several weeks, community leaders from Frankford, Bridesburg, Wissinoming, Tacony, Mayfair, and Holmesburg have met, discussed, and agreed that splitting the 15th Police District into two separate Districts would benefit all of our neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, this has been an ongoing issue within our neighborhoods for well over 25 years as seen in the following excerpt from 1989 found in it's entirety here :http://articles.philly.com/1989-12-03/news/26160406_1_northeast-residents-ucan-civic-groups

Coalition Seeks More Police For Northeast

By Larry King, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted December 03,1989

Northeast residents might soon start blocking streets to protest what they see as a glaring lack of police protection.

Last week, a coalition of 18 Northeast civic groups began urging members to demonstrate tomorrow morning at Torresdale and Cottman Avenues, on the Tacony- Holmesburg border. Representatives of the newly formed United Civic Associations of the Northeast (UCAN) said the demonstration would begin at 6 a.m. and continue throughout the day.

"The number one problem is the lack of police," said Charles Cooper, a UCAN representative from the Tacony Civic Association. He said UCAN wants specific commitments from city officials that police protection in the Northeast will be increased soon.

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For the past 25 plus years, we feel as though our neighborhoods have been patient, and have tried several different solutions including the promise of more police officers, and dividing the district into three separate PSA's, however we feel as though all of these solutions have fallen short, and that our neighbors still feel unprotected or under-protected. When we as leaders in the community have taken these concerns to various police personnel, time and time again we'd hear the same thing - "The 15th District is the biggest and the busiest district in the city"

We'd like to change that!

We all agree that the City of Philadelphia needs more police officers, however we also feel as though splitting the 15th District would ensure that X amount of officers would remain within their specific District as opposed to running up and down Frankford avenue as they are now. The concept is to split the 15th in half, and then fill both halves with more officers.

Last night Community Leaders met with Councilman Henon, and I'm happy to report that Councilman Henon fully supports the idea behind splitting the 15th District, and he has already set up an online petition to help him - help us.

http://www.bobbyhenon.com/split

We are still very much in the discussion stage of the Split, but I'm very happy with the way our communities have come together to find a solution to a problem that we all share. Working together, I'm optimistic that our vision can be attained. Please take a moment to sign Councilman Henon's petition, share it with your friends, and encourage them to sign it as well.

Thank you!

Donny Smith
Mayfair Civic Association
President