To more effectively police the city, the Metropolitan Police Department has organized the District of Columbia into 83 Police Service Areas, or PSAs for short. PSA boundaries generally follow neighborhood and natural boundaries.
It is important for you to know what PSA you live in so you can get to know the police who are responsible for keeping your neighborhood safe. These police officers are the people who make up your PSA team, and the police/community partnership begins with them.
You can visit the MPDC Website to find out what PSA you live in. Go to http://www.mpdc.dc.gov Under "information," click on "Police Districts and Service Areas." This will take you to a map of the police districts in the city, as well as the "PSA Finder." To find your PSA, type in your address and the database will identify your PSA for you.
The map on the next page shows the 83 PSAs, the seven districts, and the three Regional Operations Commands (ROCs) in the city.
How the PSA Teams Work
Your PSA team, made up of the PSA lieutenant, and his or her sergeants and officers, carry out the most direct role in preventing crime and disorder in your community. The PSA lieutenant is the PSA manager. He or she is accountable for the quality of policing in the PSA 24-hours-a-day. The PSA lieutenant relies on the PSA sergeants to supervise the officers they are working with during their tours of duty.
The PSA team is supported by the Regional Operations Command Assistant Chief, the Police District Commander and Captains, and other critical Department resources. These include the Focused Mission Teams, the district detectives, the Mobile Crime Unit, Major Narcotics Branch, the Office of Youth Violence Prevention, the Special Investigations Division, and Youth Preventive Services.
One of the most important goals of the PSA team is maintaining PSA integrity. This means responding to calls for service and getting to know the people, the resources and the problems in their PSA. It means being visible and accessible to the people who live and work in the PSA. And it means staying within the PSA boundaries when possible.
Community participation in each PSA is vital. Residents, business people and other community groups should get to know their PSA lieutenants, sergeants, and officers. Community members must know their officers who are out in the neighborhood day-to-day. And just as important, community members must get involved by participating in their PSA's monthly community meetings.