{"id":302022,"date":"2026-10-08T01:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/302022\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T01:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:42:17","slug":"erie-blue-coats-connect-community-to-local-resources-with-pilot-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/302022\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie Blue Coats connect community to local resources with \u2018Pilot Program\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The City of Erie is partnering with a local advocate organization to launch a pilot program in an effort to enhance safety and reduce crime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Members of the Erie Blue Coats will be stationed in Perry Square on weekdays from noon until 7 p.m., engaging with residents and connecting them to local resources as needed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The &#8220;Erie Community Presence Pilot Program&#8221; has already begun, taking place from August 31 through November 6.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The city has diverted about $20,000 from the police overtime budget to fund this contract and invest in building consistent relationships with the community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:Erie police investigating string of false bomb threats;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/erie-police-investigating-string-of-false-bomb-threats\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Erie police investigating string of false bomb threats\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been going great, they&#8217;ve been making referrals to services, they&#8217;ve de-escalated a number of incidents that might have otherwise gone in a different direction if not for their peacekeeping presence,&#8221; said Lori Radder Spicer, chief of staff for the City of Erie. &#8220;They&#8217;re continuing to do all the work they&#8217;ve done in our schools and our neighborhoods, this is just an additional project that we&#8217;re looking forward to partnering not only on this but exploring other opportunities for partnership with them going forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The administration will review the data from this contract and will work with the Blue Coats and the police department on how to move forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Erie is partnering with a local advocate organization to launch a pilot program in an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-302022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}