Being able to move safely in the dark is an important skill and nowhere more so than during an emergency. Marion Police Department is working to make sure residents can do just that with a new push to make sure every household has a working flashlight on hand.

 

Police Chief Randall Davis said a quick survey of residents showed a good portion of households either don’t have a flashlight, don’t know where their flashlight is or don’t have working batteries to put in it. After a weekend of severe storms that saw more than 40 people killed throughout the southeast, he said something needs to be done.

 

“It might be a small LED, but it’s going to be something,” he said.

 

To help distribute the flashlights, Davis said he plans to partner with the town’s water department, handing out the lights when residents come by to pay their water bills. Marion officers will also work to take lights to those who need them and work with the community to come up with other ways to get working flashlights in every Marion home.

 

“However we need to do it, we’re going to get them out,” he said. “But nobody is going to be able to say they don’t have one. That’s the goal.”

 

While something as small as a flashlight may seem trivial to some, Davis said they can be hard to find when disaster hits. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he said, finding flashlights and batteries was almost impossible.

 

“When things start happening, even if they did still need one, you go to the store, you can’t find nothing,” he said. “It runs out that quick.”

 

There are still a few aspects of the initiative still being fine tuned, Davis said, but the department is looking to begin distributing the lights within the next week.

 

While households are getting flashlights, Marion businesses will have the opportunity to get their employees CPR certified as the town looks to host its second CPR certification class April 10.

 

Davis said the first CPR class, which was held in February, was well attended and there is interest in the community to offer the class to more people. The free course was organized in partnership with Metro Ambulance with the goal of getting more CPR certified residents in the community and at local businesses.

 

In February, Davis said the idea came to him after he started wondering what would happen if an emergency were to happen at a Marion business, church or in the community. Having someone there who knows how to do CPR can make a big difference in the time it takes emergency medical personnel to arrive at the scene, he said.

 

David Mapp, chief operating officer for Metro Ambulance, said CPR keeps blood moving, delivering oxygen to the body. From the perspective of a first responder, he said, the difference between a patient who has had CPR and one who hasn’t is night and day.

 

Marion is growing, Davis said, and with that growth comes an increase in emergency calls. As the police chief, he said he believes it is a duty to set the community up as best he can for success.

 

“It’s about getting this town prepared for growth,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing.”