The Bylaws of the C.O.P.
In early 1995, the Beaumont Police Department along with several Beaumont neighborhood associations initiated a program called Citizens On Patrol (C.O.P.) The program consists of volunteers from established Beaumont neighborhood associations who donate their time to patrol their neighborhood while driving their own vehicles.
The object of the program is to provide more eyes and ears on the streets observing and reporting crime and/or suspicious activity.
Program guidelines prohibit participants from actions that would place them in a confrontational situation. Each vehicle is equipped with a cellular telephone on which to call in incidents needing police attention and radios. Corporate sponsors and private individuals underwrite the program to help pay for cellular phones, radios, magnetic signs for participants’ vehicles, miscellaneous equipment and distinctive clothing.
Participants may patrol any number of hours per week and at whatever time of day is convenient to them. Each participant must document his/her activities during patrol and this information is forwarded to the Beaumont Police Department.
What You Get When You Join:
When you join Citizens On Patrol you not only join an organization, YOU JOIN A TEAM. You will not only patrol your own neighborhood but once a month we have citywide ride-outs. The C.O.P. group meets at a local, predetermined restaurant to eat and swap stories. It is fun and fellowship for the entire group to enjoy. Once we’ve had our fun, all C.O.P. members take to the streets as a unified force and descend on a predetermined neighborhood association. We patrol the neighborhoods borders making it clear that we are no longer going to be victims in our own city and in our own homes.
So, if you’re tired of being a victim and want to take an active part in getting rid of the crime that plagues our city. If you are interested in joining a group of great individuals for fun and fellowship and making new friends. And if you’re interested in taking back the Beaumont Streets from the crime that causes you to be afraid of walking down them.
Our Signs:
You can easily distinguish a Citizens On Patrol Vehicle. They have magnetic signs on the doors stating they are C.O.P. with our logo that you see at the beginning of this website.
Our Radios:
The Beaumont Police Department has recently upgraded their radio system. The Beaumont Police Department's new system has allowed for a specific channel to be used by the Beaumont C.O.P. group alone. The radios we use are exactly like the ones the police officers wear on their person to communicate with dispatch. These new radios serve a two-fold purpose.
First, any person patrolling will be able to check and see if other patrollers are out at the same time. If the patroller's neighborhood association is quiet, with little to no activity, then he may communicate with other patrollers and either join them in patrolling their neighborhood or the patrollers as a whole can go to another neighborhood association’s area entirely and patrol in a coordinated effort. This will increase the eyes and ears on the street and not just serve Associations with active patrol groups but will also help those areas in Beaumont that have no active patrol groups at this time.
The C.O.P.s can contact officers directly. The Beaumont Police Department has a Community Oriented Policing Unit the two officers assigned to this unit have this radio in their patrol units.