Recently, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson launched the expansion of the Community Safety Partnership in Harvard Park through a community celebration co-hosted with the American Heart Association. Over 700 residents participated.
“This is the first time we’ve had a progressive, innovative, community-based policing program”, said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. “We are taking a successful model introduced in the housing projects and implementing them in a neighborhood. We believe we can reduce violence and we can get police and the community to work together towards a solution.”
Born in the housing projects of Watts, the Community Safety Partnership successfully reduced violent crime and arrests by 50 percent. The CSP program is aimed at improving the relationships between residents of Los Angeles and the LAPD. This partnership will involve assigning 10 LAPD police officers to work directly in the community, using relationship-based strategies, to create trust, prevent crime, and create healthier communities. Residents can work with CSP police officer’s to develop and implement sustainable programs, eliminate crime, and address quality of life issues, while at the same time bridging the gap between the community and the LAPD.
In collaboration with the launch of the Community Safety Partnership, the American Heart Association (AHA) is launching the Community S.T.E.P.S. program in South LA’s Harvard Park neighborhood, in collaboration with the 77th Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, the LA Urban League and The District Music Group. Its vision is to create a safe space for dialogue and exercise between community members and law enforcement.
The program will create the opportunity for community members to join police officers on walks in the park and around the neighborhood and in other physical activities, giving them an opportunity to get active together, discuss issues that affect the community, and work toward solutions. The program not only promotes cardiovascular health, but also addresses a shared value in the importance of equal opportunity for health by helping to create safer environments for residents to be outside and active.
