Austin police officer Hank Moreno said communication with residents is a top priority as he settles into his new assignment as a district representative in the Austin Police Department’s North Austin regional office.

Moreno, who has a nearly 30-year career in law enforcement, including 18 years with APD, took over in September for Officer Michael Whetston, who had served as district representative in Northwest Austin for the past six years.

“My main thing is I just want to continue the quality service that he provided to the residents there,” Moreno said.

Daily police work looks different for district representatives, said Rafael Kianes, a senior officer in the program’s Region 2 office in Northwest Austin, where Moreno also works. Rather than respond to 911 calls, district representatives work on finding long-term solutions to deterring crime, Kianes said.

Kianes pointed to the mobile walking beat pilot program as an example of how district representatives take a different approach to public safety compared to traditional police work.

The pilot program was initiated this year as part of the Restore Rundberg Initiative in North Austin and takes officers out of their patrol cars to walk the streets and talk to residents. Kianes said the idea developed after police surveyed community members in an effort to add qualitative information to the department’s crime data.

“What we saw was a large percentage of the community felt that with the police cars just driving by there wasn’t enough attention, and there wasn’t a real good interaction with the police department,” Kianes said. “We’re really changing the idea of what a lot of people in the community felt was the role of the police department.”

District representatives handle a variety of activities that are usually outside the typical duties of a patrol officer, Kianes said. Those activities include answering questions at neighborhood association and neighborhood watch meetings, organizing public-safety educational programs for children in local schools and helping residents with various non-emergency issues.

Officers also handle issues that tend to fall in between the scope of police responsibilities and those that would be handled by other city departments, Kianes said. Day-to-day work can range from mediating neighborhood disagreements over loud music and barking dogs to taking reports of abandoned vehicles, he said.

Kianes said the program is meant to take police work deeper than just responding to crimes and emergencies.

“We’re pretty much a bridge between the community and the police department,” Kianes said.

Eight officers serve as district representatives in Region 2, which covers 87 square miles on the city’s north side.

Moreno is assigned to a sector bordered by Metric Boulevard to the east, US 183 to the west and south and the city limits to the north.

Region 2 district representatives serving in Northwest Austin can be reached at 512-974-5743.

APD is also active on Nextdoor, a social network designed to improve neighborhood communication and safety.