The following was submitted by PART of Westford. To submit your own content, e-mail asylvia@westfordcat.org
The Police Amateur Radio Team (PART) of Westford will again be doing their annual Pumpkin Patrol by assisting the Westford Police Department in keeping Halloween Eve a safe and more enjoyable event. PART uses both mobile units and foot patrols to provided additional means of observing and reporting any activities that may be hazardous to Trick or Treaters. Each mobile and foot unit has contact directly to the Westford Police Station through amateur radio. Communications between PART patrols and the Police Station are directed by a PART net control operator located in the Police Station. Situations observed by PART patrols are communicated to PART net control and in turn relayed to Police dispatch for action on the incident. The only duties of a PART member are to observe and report.
PART’s Pumpkin Patrol will begin at 5:45 PM on Saturday October 31 and will extend beyond the end of official Trick or Treat hours. In addition to reporting hazardous activities, PART patrols have also been asked to report incidents of damage or defacing to public buildings and cemeteries.
PART was founded in 1975. It was an outgrowth of an idea by the then Chief of Police Joe Connell. Chief Connell had been introduced to ham radio and was particularly interested in the ability of hams to communicate from their cars. He also felt that ham radio operators were disciplined enough to be viable “extra reporting eyes” in our community. Ham radio equipment was installed in the Westford Police station and over the years many emergency calls have been received. Pumpkin Patrol was initiated several years after PART was founded. PART continues to focus on emergency communications but has expanded to a full scale amateur radio club affiliated with the American Radio Relay League.
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