Recently, Sgt. Allan Brown and other Dallas Police Department officers were conducting serious police work in our neighborhood.
They parked their mobile police storefront at some of our neighborhood schools and assisted the staff of the Woodrow/Long Community Health Clinic with an immunization clinic.
You might ask yourself: What does policing have to do with immunizations?
“It’s contact with the police department when your house hasn’t been burglarized, when you haven’t been pulled over for a DWI,” Brown says. “This gives people an opportunity to see us from a different perspective.”
That’s one of the purposes of the Dallas Police Department’s new Weed and Seed program. Weed and Seed has targeted the Gaston corridor for massive crackdowns on crime, with a follow-up of strong social services to revitalize the community.
The boundaries for the Weed and Seed area are Ross, Haskell, the Santa Fe railroad tracks and Skillman. The area includes about 21,000 residents, an ethnically diverse population, high crime and a wealth of social services, Brown says.
Weed and Seed program was started by the U.S. Justice Department three years ago, providing federal money to local police agencies to revitalize communities that are on the edge.
“It can’t be something that’s totally blighted,” Brown says. “It’s to improve what’s already there.”
Earlier this summer, the Dallas Police Department applied for a Weed and Seed grant from the Justice Department. If it comes through, the department will receive a three-year, $750,000 annual grant for Weed and Seed efforts.
In early April, five police personnel were selected to become the Weed and Seed force. After writing the grant proposal, the officers started work. The immunization clinics was one of their first projects, while the other has been rounding up community involvement.
“This is a community-based program,” Brown says. “I want people to feel safer in their neighborhood.”
Monthly Community Advisory Committee meetings will be held for input from the community. The first meeting will be Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. at the Munger Place United Methodist Church.
“It’s something different,” Brown says. “It’s a new challenge. It’s something completely away from traditional policing.”
For more information about the program, or to become involved, call 670-4420.
