Scanner Group Hopes to Equip Citizen Patrols with Radios:

The moderator of a Facebook group focused on local crime is seeking donations from its members to outfit a volunteer neighborhood watch program with radios. Jackson County Scanner Group administrator and co-owner Ryan Mallory is seeking about $4,000 from donors for radio equipment that will be used by the Scanner Group’s Citizens Patrol, a group of screened volunteers. Citizens Patrol members are already on the streets keeping tabs on their own neighborhoods and 73 crime-ridden areas, then relaying suspicious activity to police. “Watch and report — that’s all we do,” Mallory said. Currently the 150 invitation-only patrol volunteers are “working by cellphone,” Mallory said, collaborating with a combination of Facebook messages and a smartphone GPS app. Mallory said he’d like to move to a radio system similar to what trucking companies use, citing volunteer safety. “We need to keep our eyes up,” Mallory said. “We don’t want people tempted to use their phone while they’re driving.” Volunteers uncomfortable or unable to patrol who “have great minds that want to participate” could take notes as dispatchers, he added. Toward that end, Mallory plans to install a radio repeater on a volunteer’s property on Manor Hill, with the help of a team that includes three ham radio operators, a former electronics engineer, metal fabricators and database experts.

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