The Police Liaison Committee, which connects the LGBT community and the police force, last week brought concerns about the ongoing prostitution problem in the Gayborhood to a new police representative at a meeting that also allowed members to network with business leaders in another burgeoning LGBT community.
The committee’s March 11 meeting was held at Darling’s Diner in Northern Liberties, where the members first met with police representatives and then set off on a tour of area businesses to introduce the committee and its mission to that community.
“Everyone was extremely welcoming, and it was great to see so many rainbow stickers,” committee chair Franny Price said, noting the committee is making an effort to represent LGBT issues throughout the city and not just in the Gayborhood. “A lot of the stores stayed open for us, so it was really impressive.”
Before the walking tour commenced, the committee had a discussion with Lt. Rick Lanzetta of the police department’s Sixth District, the new point person for the district’s Patrol Service Area 3.
The police department rolled out the concept of PSAs in each of its 23 districts in January. The PSAs, which range in number from two-four in each district, allow police officials to focus on one specific area instead of covering the entire district.
The Sixth District, which covers most of Center City east of Broad Street, was divided into three PSAs, with the third stretching from Lombard to Chestnut streets, encompassing the Gayborhood.
Each PSA, which is required to hold one community meeting a month, includes a lieutenant, three sergeants and at least 30 officers.
“If I have an Officer Sweeney who’s in PSA3, I don’t send him to PSA1 or PSA2 unless it’s something really serious, so that way he can become more familiar with this individual community, with the bad guys, with the layout of the land,” Lanzetta said. “We’re focusing our attention on these limited spaces so we can become more familiar and serve these communities better.”
During the meeting, the committee members raised the issue of prostitution, which Price said has been a longtime problem in the 12th and 13th Street corridors but has seen a recent upswing.
“What the committee was most concerned about was the quality-of-life issues, mainly prostitution, so that’s now going to become one of our priorities,” Lanzetta said.
He noted that each PSA has to have a minimum number of officers deployed in the area at certain times, which frees up other officers to concentrate on areas they identify as trouble spots.
“If the minimum number of officers was for instance three, and I have five on at one time, then that gives me two more people to focus directly on a specific area, like 12th and 13th streets,” Lanzetta said. “And then I can also go to my captain and say, ‘We have this problem,’ and then he can give me more tactical people — bike cops, plainclothes officers. There are resources we can plug into to take care of this.”
Rick Lombardo, secretary of the committee, said the new PSA format will make the police more aware of systemic issues plaguing the Gayborhood.
“The great thing is they’re responsible for what goes on in their specific areas for 24 hours a day,” Lombardo said. “It allows for much more accountability and responsibility.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].