Long Beach to Open Storefront Police Stations
Long Beach will use about $15,000 in federal funds to open the city’s first two storefront police stations early next year.
The storefront stations, modeled after those in Philadelphia, will serve as places for police officers to gather, where residents may get information and where volunteers will run such programs as neighborhood watch.
Officers will not be deployed and criminals will not be booked at the centers.
The Community Development Block Grant funds will pay rent at two locations, most likely in the southern part of the city. The sites will be chosen by neighborhood groups by January.
Neighborhoods vying for the storefronts must plan on providing 30 hours of volunteer time to the centers each week, officials said. The city will staff the centers, which will be tried for a year, for at least 15 hours a week and will pay utility bills.
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