SEPTA’s police chief, Thomas Nestel III, will speak to Frankford Civic Association members about his force’s operations at neighborhood El stops during their Thursday, Feb. 5, meeting, Pete Specos, the association’s president, said last week.
During their Jan. 7 meeting, members asked if the transit agency’s officers and Philadelphia Police Department officers cooperated in battling crime on SEPTA property.
Residents said drug selling is a particular problem in and around the Margaret-Orthodox stop.
Interviewed in late 2013, Nestel had told the Northeast Times that SEPTA plots out crime hot spots in the transit system and deploys officers to those areas.To cut down cell phone thefts at the Frankford Transportation Center, he had said his officers paid particular attention to loitering. “We’re keeping the future thugs of America moving,” he had said.
SEPTA cops made their presence known, he had said, but also have conducted surveillance in plain clothes. He said SEPTA’s officers train in the Philadelphia Police Academy and have police powers in the city and beyond.
On Friday, Nestel said SEPTA just added more officers to cover the El from the Frankford terminal to the York-Dauphin stop.
The Philly PD’s Chief Inspector Dennis Wilson last week said city and SEPTA police are in constant communication. Each force knows what the other is doing, and their radio systems are compatible. Wilson said city and transit agency police have worked together.
During the Jan. 7 session, members of the Frankford Civic Association said they are continuing to discuss ways to encourage business owners and residents to make their private surveillance tapes available to police.
A small group of association members has been looking at how the civic could get more security system owners involved in the Police Department’s SafeCam program.
Those who register their systems with police are contacted only when a crime occurs nearby and if detectives believe surveillance recordings might help their investigations.
The civic association committee is “moving along cautiously,” said resident Veronica Daniel. She said members are looking at camera systems and their costs, and will probably approach business owners first. Some business owners already have surveillance systems, she said.
“I do pay attention to who has the cameras,” she added.
Specos said he hopes to soon start canvassing the neighborhood.
For years, association members regularly have met on the first Thursdays of each month in the second-floor conference room at Aria Health’s Frankford campus. The room become unavailable for Thursdays this year, Specos said, so the January session was conducted on the first Wednesday instead.
However, some residents can’t adjust their schedules for the new time, Specos said, so the February meeting will be back to the first Thursday — the 5th. It’s the place that will be different — St. Mark’s Church, 4442 Frankford Ave. Rev. Jon Clodfelter said residents can park in the church’s lot and enter by the side door. ••
