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WHAT IS THE FRAMINGHAM AUXILIARY POLICE?
The Framingham Auxiliary Police (FAP) is a dedicated group of about 25 men and women who volunteer their time and energy to make Framingham a better and safer place to live and work. The auxiliary officers provide in excess of 4000 hours of community service to the town annually. Our officers receive no pay or other compensation for their volunteer efforts.
The U.S. Office of Homeland Security has identified several important prevention and protection activities that local communities are responsible for. The activities include preparedness, detection, response, recovery, and incident management. As part of the towns’ Emergency Management agency, the FAP is an integral component of Framingham’s prevention and protection measures helping to ensure the safety of the community.

A COMMITMENT
The FAP officers come from a variety or backgrounds and occupations including electricians, managers, business owners, security professionals. nurses, accountants, and doctors. There are a number of reasons why they have joined and serve with the FAP. The primary reason is that our officers enjoy giving back to the community that they live and work in.
For many of our officers, the FAP is a life long commitment. We currently have a number of officers who have served for well over 10 years, and a few approaching 25 years of service. In fact our current roster of officers have collectively accumulated over 176 years of service to the Town of Framingham with an average tenure of over 9 years.

HISTORY
The Framingham Auxiliary Police was founded in 1942 during World War II, and formed through the Civil Defense Act. The organizations primary function was to serve as Air Raid Wardens as part of Civilian Defense, Auxiliary officers patrolled the town to ensure that citizens were complying with the black-out orders. The officers were not permitted to carry flashlights during their tours of duty, for fear that an enemy aircraft might spot it's beam of light during an attack of our country.
Following the war, the FAP continued to serve the town, but with a different focus. Auxiliary officers began patrolling town property, watching for vandalism, checking for improperly secured buildings and assisting the Framingham Police in whatever capacity requested.
The FAP is still to this day organized under the Massachusetts Civil Defense Act. The term Civil Defense is currently referred to as Emergency Management.

DUTIES
The dictionary defines auxiliary as “Acting as a subsidiary; supplementary; held in or used as a reserve”. Our officers do not replace, fill in for, or take on duties normally assigned to Framingham Police Officers. Our volunteer efforts enhance, supplement, and expand the services provided by the Framingham Police Department to the community.
Our officers operate a marked Police cruiser a minimum of two nights per week and patrol the entire town. We check town property and assist the Framingham Police as requested . These patrols perform a number of functions. First, we operate as an additional set of eyes and ears for the Framingham Police. Secondly, we supplement department by providing assistance at accidents, fire scenes and other incidents, allowing Framingham Police officers to be available for higher priority calls for service. This “hands-on” involvement allows us be maintain a level of preparedness and training in the event of an emergency.

COMMUNITY SERVICE
In addition to our scheduled patrols, we support the town by providing assistance at community oriented events including the Boston Marathon, various road races, fairs and walk-a-thons which occur in town, and the annual summer Concert on the Green series. Auxiliary officers were part of the President Clinton security detail when he visited Framingham in 1994. Auxiliary officers volunteer to patrol the town on the nights surrounding Halloween and provide additional police presence to the business and shopping areas during the December holiday season.
Other services we provide are a child fingerprinting program which has processed over 5,000 children since its origin. We also assist with the towns annual Memorial and Veterans Day services, Flag Day Parade and the Fourth of July fireworks.

HELPING IN EMERGENCIES
The FAP is called on to assist the Framingham Police Department in a variety of circumstances ranging from the visit of President Clinton and the World Cup Celebrations to significant weather events like the “The Perfect Storm”, The No-Name Hurricane and The Blizzard 1978 .
When we are called on to assist with an incident, the Town of Framingham knows we are prepared to come to the aid of the town and its citizens.
In addition to providing support at the incident scene, we are prepared to provide additional staffing inside the Police Station, open and staff the town’s emergency shelters and assist at the Framingham Emergency Operations Center.
The FAP has it’s own emergency response system which the Framingham Police or Emergency Management can activate with a single telephone call.

TRAINING
Training the officers of the FAP has taken vast leaps over the years. In the early days the training consisted of some first aid training and a quick run down of the officer's duties.
Our current training consists of a State sponsored Intermittent/Reserve Police Officer Academy. Upon completion of the academy, our officers receive certification in First Responders first aid, CPR and use of Defibrillation units carried in all Framingham Police patrol vehicles. Our recruits undergo approximately 200 hours of training before becoming a uniformed member of the FAP.
Our officers then enter a field training phase where they are coupled with senior officers who help them understand the policies, procedures and protocol of the FAP and the Framingham Police Department. They also learn the geographic and unique characteristics of Framingham.
Our training is ongoing, and includes maintaining certification in all equipment carried as well as our first aid and CPR. Each month we hold training sessions on subjects including defensive tactics, verbal communication, narcotics, officer safety, fire safety, and crime scene security.
In response to the events of September 11th, we have updated our training schedule to include training on incidents involving weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological incidents, and communication protocol during critical incidents. While it is our distinct hope that we will not need to call on these skills, as part of Emergency Management we have a duty to the residents of the Town of Framingham to be prepared should the need arise.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED
If you would like more information about becoming a member of the FAP, you are invited to attend our monthly meeting, which is normally held at the station on the third Monday of every month at 7:30PM.

“I would say the vast majority of police departments need volunteers to help make their departments function. The Chief here in Knoxville was telling me that he could not live without the fact that we've got a lot of volunteers right from your community, probably your neighbors, that go down there on a daily basis, to help make the Police Department function more smoothly. This is a good way to help in your community”

President Bush
April 8, 2002
Knoxville, TN