Below is a message from Lieutenant Mark Boudreau of the Flint Police Department:
Good evening Block Clubs and Neighborhood Associations,
I am Lt. Mark Boudreau with the Flint Police Department. I have recently been put in charge of developing a new program called Citizens Radio Patrol. The purpose of this program is to empower citizens in Flint to help in the fight against crime.
The way Citizens Radio Patrol works is you, as a club or association, will create your own teams of at least three members to patrol your own neighborhoods. Two members will be in one of their own vehicles with a Citizens Radio Patrol magnetic placard attached to the side. The two will be in a vehicle and the third member will be at home (or possibly mini-station). There will be one radio in the car and one radio at home (or base station). When the two volunteer members patrolling see something criminal or suspicious, they will report, via the radio, back to the base station. The base station will then call 911. If something that is not criminal or not an emergency, you can still report this back to your base station operator and a report can be made with our Neighborhood Safety Officers.
The important thing to remember is safety is always first and we do not allow anyone to intervene on in-progress criminal activity.
There is more to this program than I can fit into one email. For those of you that are interested, there is a tentative training date scheduled for Saturday September 13, 2014. I would like to you how many would be interested in this program and if you are available for that date. The training should last about 2.5 hours.
I work the night shift patrol, so the best way to contact me is through email.
Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you all.
Lieutenant Mark Boudreau
Flint Police Department
Police Operations Bureau
810-237-6800 ext. 4203