The Flint Police Department is getting some help meeting its need for training and new equipment.
For years, the Flint Police Department has struggled with budget cuts.
Now the Flint Police Foundation is stepping in to fill some of the gaps.
Max Chiddister is the executive director. He previously worked for a similar foundation in Detroit. Chiddister says raising money for police is easy. But he admits there are challenges too.
“We’re in competitions with other foundations raising money,” says Chiddister, “and that becomes the complicated part of it.”
He says the Flint foundation will target more individual and foundation donors than corporations.
Flint’s police chief hopes the foundation can raise money for training and new equipment, like Tasers.
“Those are great tools that we’ve come to deploy them,” says Flint Police Chief James Tolbert, “but we need more.”
Other items on the department’s wish list include:
- help with K-9 units costs
- backup weapons and ammo
- flashlights
- less lethal munitions
- firearms range
