But will the new recruits have cool hats?

At a community meeting on Friday, Lieutenant John Hedgecock of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Second District told community leaders in Georgetown that crime had dropped very slightly in Georgetown in the past year, by 2 percent.

However, to date, robberies are up by 8 percent and thefts from autos are up by 18 percent, Hedgecock told leaders, according to an e-mail from Diane Colasanto of the Citizens’ Association of Georgetown Public Safety Committee. Hedgecock told community leaders that arrests had risen too, but did say by how much.

Hedgecock also said that the Georgetown area is now up to its full force of police officers, “with none detailed to other areas for special assignment and only one on extended leave,” Colasanto wrote, adding that full staffing has been a problem for Georgetown in the past.

“In addition, our regular force will soon be supplemented with one officer and five newly trained recruits starting next week and continuing until early January,” she added. “This group of recruits-plus-supervisor will, at least initially, focus on the panhandlers.”

(Their police bicycles will also be outfitted with training wheels).

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