It’s almost 3 p.m., the start of second shift at the busy District 2 substation of the Providence Police Department. Sgt. Glendon Goldsboro, right, prepares to give the officers their orders.

The district that includes South Providence, with Elmwood Avenue on the west and Allens Avenue to the east, is one of the busiest in the city and has the most hospitals and schools of any in the city as well. There are the most social service agencies there, with “a lot of good people working for the neighborhood,” according to Lt. George Stamatakos, left, the commanding officer of the district.

Patrolmen of District 2 share the space with two officers from the Department of Corrections’ Probation and Parole unit and work closely with them to keep track of parolees and probationers in the neighborhood. The office is in the Urban League headquarters on Prairie Avenue. It was pulled together with furniture donated by Brown University, and work crews from the ACI cleaned and painted the space and moved in the furniture. It’s still bare-bones, but that is in keeping with the goal of community policing –– officers on the street rather than sitting in an office.

Lt. Stamatakos likes the idea of the Providence police working closely with the Department of Corrections. “We want you [probationer or parolee] to succeed,” he says, because it will mean the community will be safer.

A shift usually consists of four police cars with a single officer in each, plus two officers who walk the beat. In summer there may be four foot and bike patrols. (The bikes sit in the office behind the desks when not in use.) Up to 10 officers may work the second shift on a given night. They have gotten to know the neighbors, even giving out their cell phone numbers so they can be called if there is a problem. Stamatakos says it is important to see “two guys on foot continually. It makes people feel like they are not alone.”

As they get ready to leave, Goldsboro hands out what the police call the flash sheet: a summary of events in the district, stolen-car reports and the names of people of interest to the police. The police also share the flash sheet with security at the local hospitals and campus police at the Providence colleges.