Crime Prevention

A wide range of services to enhance the perception of safety in Center City Philadelphia.

Alert Philadelphia

Alert Philadelphia provides timely notification of emergencies and events that impact Center City businesses, employers, property owners, hospitals, residential groups, community leaders, law enforcers, first responders and private security representatives, among others. Important information is relayed on a timely basis via email and text message. Alert Philadelphia is a partnership of the Center City District and the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management. Alert Philadelphia Sign-Up

Crime Mapping and Analysis

Working with the Philadelphia Police Department, the CCD uses state-of-the art, computer-generated mapping techniques to identify crime trends or patterns and make strategic deployment decisions.

Community Court

In 2002, the Center City District launched a Community Court, to address quality-of-life crimes such as prostitution, graffiti and retail theft. These non-violent misdemeanor crimes were largely falling through the cracks of the Philadelphia criminal justice system. Community Court's goal was to get defendants in front of a judge as quickly as possible and offer them community service and social services in exchange for a suspended guilty plea. The Court operated successfully for a decade until, due to changes in leadership in the criminal justice system and lack of renewed city funding, it suspended operations in 2012. To learn more, read Philadelphia Community Court: A Model for Other Pennsylvania Cities from The Pennsylvania Lawyer, March/April 2012.