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??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????? EOWS
DECEMBER 12, 2000??????????? ?? ???????????????????????????????????????????? ?????202/307-0703
ATLANTA RECEIVES STATE-OF-THE-ART MOBILE
POLICE STATION
WASHINGTON, DC ? As part of the Justice
Department?s effort to reduce crime and revitalize neighborhoods, Atlanta today
received a state-of-the-art mobile police station.? The Mobile Community Outreach Police Station (MCOPS) initiative
is a component of the Justice Department?s Weed and Seed initiative.
The MCOPS mobile station was unveiled today
at a ceremony attended by Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, Atlanta Chief of Police
Beverly Harvard, and Director of the Justice Department?s Executive Office for
Weed and Seed (EOWS) Stephen Rickman.
?This mobile police station will do more than improve law enforcement,
it will become an important part of the Weed and Seed community,? said Director
Rickman.
The mobile station will expand Atlanta?s
community policing and neighborhood revitalization program.? It will also allow for special law
enforcement deployment operations and make it easier for officers to
participate in community meetings and forums, which will help reinforce the
bond between the local citizens and the police officers who use the station as
their home base.? In addition, the
station can be used to provide social services such as child immunization,
blood pressure screening, childcare screening and as a place for battered women
to initially seek help.?
The station, which was custom built for the
Justice Department, features a full communications area, including radios and
fax machine and an interfaced phone system.
It also includes two full workstations, a conference room, and an
outdoor awning and set-up for community events.?
Atlanta is the first of three sites to
receive mobile stations from the Executive Office of Weed and Seed during the
second phase of the MCOPS initiative.
Kansas City, Missouri and
Houston, Texas will receive the other two mobile stations in 2001.? During the first phase, six Weed and Seed
sites received the mobile stations: Indianapolis, IN; Oakland, CA; Fort Myers,
FL; New Orleans, LA; Norwalk, CT; and Washington, DC.
Operation Weed and Seed is a multi-agency
strategy that ?weeds out? violent crime, gang activity, drug use, and drug
trafficking in targeted neighborhoods and then ?seeds? the target area by
restoring these neighborhoods through social and economic revitalization.? The Weed and Seed strategy recognizes the
importance of linking and integrating federal, state and local law enforcement
and criminal justice efforts with social services, and private sector and
community efforts to maximize the impact of existing programs and
resources.? Community involvement is an
essential element of the strategy:
local residents must be empowered to assist in solving problems in their
neighborhoods.? ????????
Atlanta has been a Weed and Seed site since
1992.? The Weed and Seed target area
includes Thomasville Heights and Capitol Homes; their immediate surrounding
areas; and a third community, Mechanicsville.
To learn more about the Weed and Seed
strategy and other Weed and Seed programs and conferences, visit the EOWS
Website at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/eows.?
Information regarding other OJP bureaus and
program offices is available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov.? Media should contact OJP?s Office of
Congressional and Public Affairs at 202/307-0703.
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EOWS01024
After hours contact: David Hess, 888/763-8943 (pager)