Potter Longway hears from police trainer

Audrey Martini of the  Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice was the guest speaker at Potter Longway Neighborhood Association meeting Feb. 21. Martini spoke about MSU's role in capacity building for the Flint Police Department by providing training and technical assistance under a grant from the C.S. Mott Foundation.

MSU has been working with Flint police since December 2009.

"We've been evaluating current practices and division of labor within the patrol function and looking for more efficient ways to handle the workload," Martini said.

"For example, all alarms are currently being addressed by officers and 97 percent of them are false alarms," she said. "This is an area where the policy could be changed."

According to Martini alternate types of call response are also being evaluated with the Flint Police Department because fewer officers are available to respond to the rising number of calls.

"The department's policies and procedures were structured for 350 officers — now there are only 120," Martini explained. "We're asking questions — such as does this position still need to be filled and could we combine this position with another."

Another area of her work focuses on the community — block clubs, neighborhood associations and crime watches — to build capacity of the police and community to work together to address crime.

"I'm absolutely amazed at how eager this community is to work with the police," Martini said.

Martini concluded her comments saying that a large majority of violent crimes are being committed by a small number of perpetrators. If the department focuses on the small number of people committing these crimes— like a sting operation — the result will be a big reduction in overall crime.

In other matters:

• Councilman Josh Freeman, (Ward 4), said the state turned down the city's request for a $20 million state bond.
• Eric Pruitt explained Red Alert's capabilities for reducing crime and recruited volunteers.
• The group elected Rob Gill, president, Eric Pruitt, vice president, Charlie Brown, treasurer and John Bednarski, assistant treasurer. The secretary position remains open.

The next meeting will be at 7 p.m. March 21 at the Eastwood United Methodist Church, 3312 Whittier St.

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