City Set to Launch New Crime Offensive

March 13, 2007 -- Tomorrow Mayor Street will announce an aggressive initiative in an attempt to combat a homicide rate that's spiraling out of control and violence that is corroding city streets.

60th and Woodland in Southwest Philadelphia has been tagged one of the most dangerous areas of the city, and tomorrow that will be the starting point of a tactical deployment in the Southwest. Similar to Operation Safe Streets, the goal is to saturate the area with a heavy police presence.

The elite Force Site Unit will be in cars, on bikes and on foot. Joining law enforcement will be social service agencies to help fight what Mayor Street has called a social problem in our communities.

2007 has seen 78 murders so far ... two of the most recent were on 52nd and Market, where a 49-year-old man was fatally shot. And Monday night a man was pronounced dead at Einstein after being shot on the 80 hundred block of Ogontz Avenue in West Oak Lane.

Although this initiative calls for a more weighty police presence in crime-ridden areas, there will not be additional officers on the streets. Some high-ranking police officials are skeptical of the new plan. They say this does nothing more than re-shuffle cops, and is largely a cosmetic move by the administration that doesn't offer any real solutions.

Action News has learned graffiti abatement will be on site and the administration is considering setting up a mobile citizen command post so residents can work with police on infiltrating these communities.

(Copyright 2007 by Action News and 6abc. All Rights Reserved.)

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