Every neighborhood and every beat within the City faces different problems of crime and neighborhood disorder. Working with their beat officers, participants in the Cellular Partnership Program can be innovative in their approach to addressing these problems. Operation Beat Feet is a program designed by residents and police officers in the Rogers Park neighborhood of the 24th Police District on the City's North Side. Several nights a week, with the days and times varying from week to week, a group of five or more citizens walk Morse Avenue and adjacent side streets in an effort to deter drug dealing, gang activity, and loitering by young people. Police patrols support the citizen walkers.
Participants carry a cellular telephone and wear orange arm bands for identification.
Keeping notes in a log book, they identify potential crime hot spots, graffiti, buildings that lack a visible address, and other problems. They also provide escorts to people who request them. The Scotsdale Nighthawks is a citizen patrol group located in the Scotsdale neighborhood in the 8th District on the South Side. Volunteers share in both patrol duties and other activities of the organization, which include an annual fund-raising dinner and soliciting donations from local businesses. The Nighthawks started patrolling in their own vehicles approximately four years ago, with the first signs of gang activity in the usually quiet community.