OUT AND ABOUT
Neighborhoods: Pottstown celebrates Police Presence: Cops, Montco D.A. promote safety
POTTSTOWN >> Perhaps Mayor Sharon Thomas said it best: “National Night Out is very important so neighbors get to know each other instead of just passing each other getting out of their cars.”
There were few cars but lots of getting to know each other Aug. 2 as Pottstown celebrated National Night Out with two very successful celebrations, one at the park and Chestnut and Washington streets and the other at Trinity Reformed UCC Church at King and Hanover streets.
At these two locations, you might have seen anything from a cus tom-built hearse pulled by a motorcycle to two “Trojan Menin training” learning the ropes of mascot-ship.
“People don’t go out and do things with each other as much anymore,” said William Pifer-Foote, interim pastor of Trinity UCC. “So something like this is great, it says we’re all here.”
Many community organizations set up tables at both locations.
At Trinity, visitors could register to vote, with a slice of choco-
“National Night Out is very important so neighbors get to know each other instead of just passing each other getting out of their cars.” Sharon Thomas, Pottstown Mayor
Pottstown Regional Public Library, BB&T Bank, Women’s Center of Montgomery County and the Pottstown Police Department.
Pottstown Police Detective Ed Kropp Jr., who heads up the department’s Community Response Unit, couldn’t agree more.
“We see people we may have seen before under less fortunate circumstances,” said Kropp. Those people get to know the police are about more than arresting people, he said.
“We hope it makes them more comfortable calling us,” he said.
Events like this also help prosecutors, said Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, who stopped by the park in between visits to similar events in Royersford and Plymouth Meeting.
Steele was in Pottstown recently to announce the establishment of a new Community Prosecution Unit to help smooth and improve cooperation among his office and the police in the county’s western-most borough.
Some of those prosecutors were meeting neighbors at National Night Out because “the law enforcement community cannot do this alone. We want to be partners with the community, build relationships and get to know each other,” said Steele.
Kropp said the prosecutors and police are working out the kinks of working together more closely and Steele said the prosecutors’ familiarity with Pottstown and the circumstances of arrests will help make the community safer.
“Knowing the scene, the suspects on the front-end makes a huge difference,” said Steele, who noted his office handles 10,000 cases a year.
Shari Butler, who was sure to mention that she works for “Beauford Funeral Services down on High Street as a Mercury videographer approached, did not have quite that many burgers on her grill, but it seemed that way.
Neighbors also munch on nachos with cheese, hot dogs and the ubiquitous water ice.
“I think this is great,” said longtime resident Chris Golden, “the community and the police get to know each other better, everyone is talking.”