Precinct-wide citizen’s patrol organizes in outer East Portland

If you’re sick and tired of crooks and drug addicts reducing the quality of life in outer East Portland, learn about this special meeting on March 20 ‚Ä¶

Rosanne Lee, East Portland Crime Prevention Program Coordinator, encourages Powellhurst-Gilbert’s Glenn Taylor to attend the March 20 organizing meeting for the new Foot Patrol.

Story and photo by David F. Ashton

They don’t carry guns and bust crooks.

But citizen volunteer members of a “Foot Patrol” do wear identifying vests, and battle crime with notebooks and pens.

Rosanne Lee, East Portland Crime Prevention Program Coordinator, explains, “Their purpose is to record what they see ‚Äì but, more importantly, to be a visible presence in the community.”

Lee says she’s in the process of developing a group of volunteers to assist Portland Police Bureau’s East Precinct officers to provide a “community presence at ‘hot-spots’ in various neighborhoods. They also do outreach for the precinct for special projects, like car prowl education.”

After two hours of training, the volunteers decide how to organize, Lee tells us. “This is a new idea; we’ve never organized a Foot Patrol on a precinct-wide basis. And, East Precinct covers a lot of territory. We’re breaking new ground.”

Come check out the Foot Patrol on March 20
Learn more about this do-it-yourself crime reduction program. The few hours you volunteer each month can make a real, positive difference in your community and neighborhood.

The organizing meeting is Tuesday, March 20 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the East Precinct Community Room, 737 SE 106th Avenue.

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