PHILADELPHIA -- A new Philadelphia crime-fighting plan is putting nearly 250 additional officers on the street.

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Videos: Nutter Explains | Community Reacts

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There's also a major shakeup in the top ranks of the Philadelphia Police Department, as well as spring and summer crime-fighting initiatives.

The crime plan was announced Thursday by Mayor Michael Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

The commissioner said police are making good progress on reducing violent crime. Ramsey named four new deputy commissioners.

Ramsey also talked about increasing the department's visibility in the community by placing 135 narcotics strike force officers on general crime-fighting duty.

He said a new police command structure will help focus on the department's major goals.

Police said the homicide rate is down 24 percent across the city.

There have been 102 homicides this year, compared to 135 this time a year ago.

Several people connected with the RW Brown Community Center in North Philadelphia, where they have programs to keep children off the streets, had their own opinion of the commissioner's crime-fighting plan.

"I had a burglary in my home a few years ago," Leroy Patrick said.

Patrick said he wasn't home when burglars broke into his Northwest Philadelphia home, but the crime shook him up.

"They took quite a few things, set me back a little ways, but that's life in the big city," he said.

Patrick was almost blasé talking about crime, because he said he's constantly surrounded by it.

He is an after-school counselor at the community center. He said he likes Ramsey's new crime fighting plan, which involves putting close to 200 new patrol officers on Philadelphia streets.

"I think that's a good idea, because when cops on the street, crime's going to go down. Their presence sometimes just deters people from doing it," Patrick said.

"I think putting more patrols is a great idea if they're on foot or on bike, so they're easily accessible," Jennifer Donohue said.

Donohue is the principal of Hope Partnership, a private middle school located at the community center. She lives in the graduate hospital neighborhood.

"Yes, there's crime in my neighborhood, cars being broken into, drugs being sold. Mostly though I've been affected by it with regards to the students. Many have parents they've lost due to gun violence, or they have incarcerated parents, there are fights," Donohue said.

While she said she thinks the commissioner's plan is a good short-term solution, she thinks the city needs to go further.

"We need to start putting policies in place that are not only punitive. They have to be teaching something, and modeling appropriate behavior," Donahue said.

"When we have patrol officers on the street in my neighborhood, it seems more safer at that point," Mike Young said.

Young's two sons go to the community center but when they're at their North Philadelphia home the boys are under his watchful eye.

"They're actually inside before it gets dark. They actually do not leave the block. I have an eye of what's going on most of the time," he said.

Young said he likes the idea of more patrol officers, and hopes it will mean his boys can enjoy a normal childhood.

"I'd like for them to be able to just run and play without me having to worry about them being shot inadvertently," he said.

So three people with three different perspectives but they are all hopeful. However, their experiences have taught them to add caution to their optimism.