J.C. Penney Closing Stores – Dropping Catalog Business

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I guess all good things come to an end.  J.C. Penney is getting out of the catalog business and closing all 19 of their catalog outlet stores.

This is possibly bad news for the Fairgrounds Square Mall, in Muhlenberg Township, which has a J.C. Penney catalog outlet store.  The store used to be a regular J.C. Penney and is one of the mall anchor stores.  The Fairgrounds location converted to the catalog outlet format in 1999. 

No closing date has been set other than it will be sometime in 2011 – 2012.  J.C. Penney would not say whether the store will close or convert back to a standard J.C. Penney retail store.

This would leave Boscov’s and Burlington Coat Factory as the remaining anchor stores in the event Penney’s pulls out of the Fairgrounds Square Mall.

Scranton Police Department Gets New Crime Fighting Software

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Scranton has purchased new software that will enable their police department to get a better handle on crime.  

For a very low price tag, $6,000, this software will enable police to do crime-mapping, tracking and facilitate anonymous tips from residents.  This sounds like something we could easily do in Pottstown.  The $6,000 price tag is a blip on our $3 million police budget. 

Anonymous tip reporting will get citizens more involved with law enforcement which is something that has been discussed here.  Citizens can get on their computer or phone, from the safety of their home, and report crimes or suspicious activity to the police.  It is completely anonymous.

The software pinpoints crimes on a map by location, type of crime and the time the crime was committed.  In Scranton’s case the data will go back as far as 2003!  What an awesome tool for such a rock-bottom price!  This technology will give police the opportunity to analyze trends and find creative ways to combat crime.

Scranton had a crime index in 2009 of 306.7, which is slightly below the US average of 319.2.  Pottstown had a crime index in 2009 of 454.7.  Scranton falls into the low category.  350 – 699 is considered moderate which is where Pottstown scores.  A score of 700 – 999 is considered high. 

The point of my comparison is that even with a lower crime rate; Scranton is being proactive and spending a few thousand dollars to reduce crime in their city with the use of technology.  It would seem this is something Pottstown should seriously consider.  I bet Scranton PD would give us a demo 🙂

Statistical information is from City-data.com