Capt. John McCloskey had some high praise for a couple of his officers during the Dec. 29 meeting of the 15th Police District Advisory Council.
Officer Sean Kennelly, the 15th’s commander said, uses his own funds to buy turkeys for needy families. “He’s been doing it for years,” McCloskey said.
While off duty Dec. 23, Officer Deirdre Byrne saw a rush-hour hit-and-run accident outside the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on State Road, McCloskey said, and stayed with the victim until she was taken to Aria Health’s Torresdale campus. Byrne also gave a description of an older-model dark pickup to investigating officers.
The victim, Theresa M. Pozzi of South Philadelphia, died an hour later at the hospital.
The captain briefly talked up the city’s SafeCam program. Owners of video surveillance systems register the equipment with the Police Department, he said. If a major crime is committed near a private surveillance system, detectives contact the owners and ask to view the recordings.
For example, he said, investigators have obtained good video of a Dec. 15 police-involved shooting in Mayfair.
The Northeast Times reported Dec. 17 that two officers struggled with Brandon Tate-Brown after a car stop on the 6700 block of Frankford Avenue at 2:45 p.m. Police said the officers, who had stopped Tate-Brown because he was driving without headlights, saw a gun inside the car and told him to get out. The motorist tried to get to the gun, police said, and one of the officers fired his weapon, striking the man once in his head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
AREA CRIME
During their session at the Mayfair Community Center, PDAC members learned assaults with guns have gone up 14 percent in the district when compared to last year. Burglaries, however, are down 29 percent.
Asked about illegal sidewalk parking in front of some businesses, the captain said officers will ask owners to remove them and, if they don’t, they start issuing citations.
Responding to questions about criminal records at a previous meeting, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Mitrick gave members a handout that explains how criminal records can be looked up online.
Anyone who has the first and last names of a defendant can go to https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/CP.aspx and follow prompts to Common Pleas Court and to search by “participant name.” Searchers put in the last and first names of a defendant and look under Philadelphia County. Searches can be further narrowed with a date of birth.
The resulting list will be of all the defendants with that name. Searchers can click on an icon on the left of each listing to view the court docket for one particular arrest or a summary of the defendant’s Philadelphia criminal record.
MEETINGS WITH POLICE
PDAC meetings are open only to representatives of other local organizations, churches, schools, businesses and their guests. The 15th PDAC’s next session will be 7 p.m. on Jan. 26 at the Mayfair Community Center, 2900 St. Vincent St.
The 15th Police District is divided into Police Service Areas 1, 2 and 3, with PSA 1 being the bottom third of the district and PSA 3 the top end. Residents from those areas may meet with police monthly, and those sessions are open to the general public.
PSA 1’s next meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Jan. 22 at Aria Health’s Frankford campus, 4900 Frankford Ave.
PSA 2’s next session, which also will serve as the captain’s monthly town hall meeting, will begin at 7 p.m. on Jan. 20 at the Lower Mayfair Recreation Center, 3000 Robbins Ave.
PSA 3’s meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 8, at the Tacony Baptist Church, 4751 Disston St. ••
