The Herndon Police Department has added a new community-policing district, Center District, as a way to pull the businesses on that side of town together.
The new district's boundaries include properties on both sides of Elden Street from the 1000 block through the 1200 block; all of Wilshire Drive; Magnolia Lane; Dulles Place; Dulles Court; both sides of Alabama Drive from the 900 block through the 1200 block; the Dulles Park Apartments and Alabama Drive Park.
"We're trying to break areas down because it is congested in that side of town," said Senior Sgt. Jerry Keys, the police department's public information officer.
With the creation of the new district, the department has broken the town into five areas each with its own Community Action Team assigned to it.
Keys said, the department had previously had officers from the department's six squads assigned to the four existing Action Teams, which in some cases caused some districts to have additional personnel. The Action Teams will now be made up of an officer assigned to each of the department's shifts — day, evening and midnight — as well as a supervisor.
Police will still respond to incidents regardless of what community-policing district they are assigned to, however, the Action Team members will work together on problems specific to their district, such as a string of larcenies or graffiti.
"If there is a habitual problem in their district, they will work together to solve it," Keys said.
In addition, a representative of each team will meet monthly with Chief Toussaint Summers Jr. and other department supervisors to discuss problems within the districts, as well as other issues affecting quality of life such as overcrowding, and together will brainstorm ways of correcting those problems, Keys said.