Philly PD Teams With PPA To Prevent Possible Threats
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's becoming more and more common: attackers developing and using homemade bombs in high populated areas.
There's now a new partnership between two Philadelphia entities in hopes of using eyes and ears already on the ground to thwart possible threats.
Philadelphia's Police Department has teamed up with the Parking Authority to teach parking meter enforcers how to identify suspicious activity.
They held their first training session inside PPA headquarters.
Detective Joseph Rovnan with the Counter-Terroism Unit says, with PPA workers trekking nearly the same routes each day, they can see when something is out of place.
"Something that just stands out about what's going on in that environment. Someone who seems lost, someone who doesn't display a tag properly. A vehicle parked unattended. A tag that isn't displayed properly. A bag left unoccupied on the streets, anything that tickles their senses," Rovnan said.
The program is in the beginning stages, but more than 200 PPA meter enforcers will be trained and ordered to call 9-1-1 if they see something unusual.