History

In 2018, members from the Albuquerque FBI Board of Directors attended the 2018 National FBI Citizens Academy Leadership Conference in Houston, Texas. Through conference presentations and networking, citizens academy alumni shared information and experiences on developing, organizing, and implementing response teams.

The alumni member's goals focused on supporting federal, state, and local law enforcement and other first responders in the aftermath of unexpected and highly agile and rapid moving critical events, mainly mass shooting incidents, which were becoming more common across the country.

After presenting the idea of starting a rapid response team for the FBI Citizens Alumni Association in Albuquerque, the Board of Directors overwhelming voted to move forward; the task began to conceptualize the approach methodology that would frame the team.

Because citizens academies alumni members are an integral component of their communities and represent a plethora of networks, these organizations possess unique characteristics most suitable to support federal, state, county, and city law enforcement needs. The forming of a response team for the Albuquerque Metro made sense, and the process began.

Unexpected Beginning 

On May 30, 2020, shortly after approval from the board of directors to move forward framing a team, local protests in the Albuquerque Metro area began in the aftermath of the George Floyd shooting. Several agencies were activated to support the needs of law enforcement.  President Tim Sheahan and Vice President Joyce Roach of the FBI Albuquerque Citizens Alumni Association  made a call  to the Chief of Police of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD), offering help from the FBI Albuquerque Citizens Academy. The chief accepted the offer and connected the citizen's academy with the appropriate office to jointly collaborate needs. After speaking with Operations Review, the unit in charge of supporting emergency response teams, alumni members offered support.

The FBI Citizens Academy moved quickly, creating "call to action" emails and phone calls for donations. These correspondences were sent to all alumni members immediately. Synergist energy resonated, and businesses began to donate food, drinks, and monetary contributions started. Within forty minutes of the first call to the chief, food and beverages arrived for over 150 officers before deploying.

Other citizens academies were asked to join in and help. Without hesitation, the Albuquerque Police Department and Bernalillo County Sheriff's academy alumni members volunteered, donated, and shared their community contacts to help establish cash assets, food, and drink donations. Because of the collaboration and a focus on the mission at hand, a newly formed Rapid Response Team emerged from an immediate need to serve those who serve. Since the first deployment and quick birth, the Rapid Response Team members have served over 4000 meals, received more than $5000 thousand dollars in donations, $4000 dollars of in-kind contributions, and provided countless volunteer hours to support the police teams and first responders on over 32 call outs from May 30 thru the end of August. . Each citizen's academy has contributed to the effort and, without hesitation, answered the call to serve, which has made the team successful. The motto "we serve those who serve." has become an ever-present focus for the team.

Vision

The Rapid Response Team is comprised of volunteers of local CPA Alumni members supporting 1^st Responders when called upon.

Responses

The type of responses we will support include natural disasters, Weather related emergencies, critical emergencies, planned and unplanned events.        

Future

The Rapid Response Team has begun conceptualizing the team's mission for future events. Developing presentations on lessons learned, best practices, and sharing our experiences, failures, and successes with others who might want to pursue a similar vision. We don't know what the future holds, but as a team, we agree that we will serve those who serve.