Peoria City officials officially welcomed its newest resident police officer on the South Side. Officer Christopher White has been at 1916 West Kettelle Street with his family for about a month. He says the program is needed to help bring down the violent crime rate more efficiently:
“With having an officer within the neighborhood, that would deter a lot of it and again it would cause a lot of people to come to you and help out those pieces together of those unsolved, violent crimes.”
The city’s resident officer program places officers to live and work in high-crime areas. Resident officers are already established in the city’s West and East Bluff neighborhoods. White says he has already helped his neighbors deal with loud music, drug issues and trash clean up.