 
Oliverdouglas
Member
Username: Oliverdouglas
Post Number: 159
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 12:50 pm: |    |
I just run up to the post office and saw two Detroit Police Officers walking up Warrington. When I got back home, they were walking down Picadilly. They waived hello, I asked them if they were just walking a beat and they said yeas. Great to see in the hoods! |
Ferntruth
Member
Username: Ferntruth
Post Number: 261
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 12:56 pm: | |
I've noticed more foot patrols on Livernois between Outer Drive and 8 Mile as well. |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 1461
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 1:23 pm: | |
That's a good thing. There are a couple of vacant houses on Lichfield. One was vandalized to the extent that it is without any plumbing at all. I hope that these DPO's are familiarizing themselves with the neighborhood and the neighbors. |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 4155
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 1:27 pm: | |
Beat walking and mounted patrols are great ways for the police to regain the trust of their communities. |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 1462
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 1:30 pm: | |
"Beat walking and mounted patrols are great ways for the police to regain the trust of their communities."
'specially in Green Acres where there are a lot more new families moving in.
I hope it continues through the holidays and beyond. |
Gravitymachine
Member
Username: Gravitymachine
Post Number: 1895
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 1:36 pm: | |
where is green acres? |
El_jimbo
Member
Username: El_jimbo
Post Number: 417
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 1:46 pm: | |
where is green acres?
Nick at Night? |
E_hemingway
Member
Username: E_hemingway
Post Number: 1453
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 1:47 pm: | |
Its the place to be |
Kayakor
Member
Username: Kayakor
Post Number: 11
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 1:50 pm: | |
Green Acres is the area just south of 8 Mile Road between Livernois and Woodward. Seems like a nice area of established, mostly well-kept homes. |
Jt1
Member
Username: Jt1
Post Number: 10997
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 1:56 pm: | |
The area too scary for Comos to deliver to.
Green Acres is like Sherwood Forest's more humble, but nice brother. Nice community bordering on other nice communities. |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 1465
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 2:09 pm: | |
Well put, Jt1. |
Treelock
Member
Username: Treelock
Post Number: 244
Registered: 03-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 4:36 pm: | |
Green Acres, Palmer Woods and possibly the University District, which is between 6 and 7 Mile, also have their own van patrols that prowl the neighborhood streets.
The foot patrols might be part of Kwame's neighborhoods plan, although I thought that mostly targeted the neighborhood along the other (west) side of Livernois. |
Swingline
Member
Username: Swingline
Post Number: 975
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 4:52 pm: | |
just keep Manhattan and give me that countryside. |
Eric_c
Member
Username: Eric_c
Post Number: 1131
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 5:14 pm: | |
We continue to see foot patrols in Islandview Village, too. About six weeks now. I thought they'd stop once the cold came, but not yet! |
Parkguy
Member
Username: Parkguy
Post Number: 170
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 5:37 pm: | |
I saw three different pairs of officers walking on Grand River on Sunday as I drove downtown. They were between Southfield and Wyoming. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 2390
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 5:58 pm: | |
Back forty years ago, all new officers fresh from the Academy (555 Clinton St.) were assigned to beats in the various precincts. And they walked for about the first three years of their careers. All days, all shifts. Midnights in January could be an experience, although one of those dreary, drizzly days in July was just as gloomy an extreme.
I went to the Vernor (#2) precinct from the Academy and soon learned all the various beats they had. It was good training, learning to observe, and the merchants always loved seeing you. Some of the beats I recall vividly were:
Michigan, from the Lodge to 14th.
Michigan, from 14th to the Boulevard, including Western Market that ran up 18th and Humboldt to Butternut.
Gramd River, Lodge to 14th
Grand River, 14th to the Boulevard
Ferry Park and the Boulevard, Lawton to 12th.
Bagley, 14th to the Boulevard
Fort Street under the bridge (watch out for the pigeons).
Buchanan, 14th to 24th.
Warren, 14th to the Boulevard.
And there were others. Your beat was both sides of the street and the adjacent alleys. You were to walk on the side of the street facing oncoming traffic. There would be a call box on the beat that you had to call in each hour on a designated quarter. You had no portable radios; they came along in '65. You'd write a few parking tickets and maybe arrest a drunk or a vagrant. They weren't called homeless people back then, just vagrants. Once in a while on nights you'd find an open door on a business place. Usually the staff just forgot to lock it, but you never knew for sure.
In marginal weather, you'd take your raincoat with you and leave it in a White Tower or some such 24-hour joint in case it was needed. On nights, you'd carry a baton, or nightstick, and you'd learn to do all kinds of neat stuff with it on its rawhide strap. Including making your shins black and blue.
Most beats were single beats. That is, one beat, one man. A couple, like Warren and Buchanan, were two-man beats based on the tracking of B&Es and other crimes.
If you arrested a misdemeanant during the night, you got to go to Recorder's Court in the morning and spend three hours down there before you could go home and go to bed. No overtime, either. You got straight comp time, but it seemed like you could never take comp time when you really wanted it.
The sergeants always checked up on their young officers, sometimes setting them up by purposly having a merchant leave a back door unlocked. Woe be to the rookie who didn't find it. And they checked you to make sure you had all your current teletypes (persons wanted) and stolen car sheet. You wrote the teletypes down by hand before the start of the shift (the doorman wrote them on a blackboard), and the stolen car sheet was a sheet of 100 squares, with the first two numbers of the plate put in the appropriate square. License AB 3657 would go in square 36 with "AB57" written in. You maintained that sheet religiously, adding and removing as they were posted on the blackboard each day.
At the end of the month, you turned in a tally form showing tickets (moving, parking, pedestrian, and misc.), arrests (misdemeanor and felony), open doors, B&E's found, value of recovered property, etc etc.
It was fun, dammit. I enjoyed it. |
Gsgeorge
Member
Username: Gsgeorge
Post Number: 443
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 6:20 pm: | |
wow Ray, fascinating. Thanks for a glimpse into that world. I wonder how much has changed and how much is different. Do they still check for opened doors? Go down back alleys? Would be great to hear from a current COD cop on the beat to see how much has changed. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 2391
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 7:13 pm: | |
"Do they still check for opened doors? Go down back alleys?"
Gosh, I sure hope so. But I've been away from "the job" for going on 24 years now, and it's a different DPD from when I was there.
Hell, it's a different world. |
Karl_jr
Member
Username: Karl_jr
Post Number: 176
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 7:17 pm: | |
I have my doubts if it anywhere near the same, but I honestly hope so. Ray your stories always leave me wanting more. I bet you could "beat" the pants off of Ikes' "North between the houses" have you ever given any consideration to writing a book? |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 2393
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 7:23 pm: | |
Thought about it once, Karl, but never did much about it. Besides, most of the memories have become so dim now that most of it would be fiction, anyway.
I've always been a bit of a writer. Wrote the monthly precinct article for "Tuebor", the publication of the DPOA for many years, and then was editor of "Bars & Stripes", the publication of the Lieutenants and Sergeants Association. But my writing forte' is for short stuff, like above, as I lose direction rapidly for anything of length.
Thanks for the kind words. |
Terryh
Member
Username: Terryh
Post Number: 595
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 7:27 pm: | |
The term homeless has a more humanizing effect than vagrant.(Im not trying to be a politically correct bleeding heart, just making a point) Many homeless are chronic alcoholics and citizens dealing with mental illness. Ray you deserve youre own thread. There is so much info and knowledge you could share with us forum members who are interested in Detroit and its history. Youre one of the more interesting posters at Detroit Yes! |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 2395
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 7:38 pm: | |
"The term homeless has a more humanizing effect than vagrant."
Oh, I agree, Terry, and there but for the grace of God........
But in 1960 they were vagrants, and that's what 99% of the US called them at that time. Going back to the thirties and forties, of course, they were called Hoboes. That term had a little more romance to it, as you immediately picture a guy with a dirty fedora jumping into a boxcar, heading somewhere else for a fresh start.
One thing about the homeless/vagrants of the early sixties...there was little drug abuse. Just the booze and lots of mental difficulties. At least that's my take on it. |
Jimaz
Member
Username: Jimaz
Post Number: 4032
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 8:25 pm: | |
The word "hobo" was a contraction of "homeward bound." The implication was that the hobo was soon to be going on his way and therefore was no threat to the locals. You can be sure that in actuality, many no longer had a home to go to.
In Phoenix today they're called "transients" possibly for the same reason.
Just passing through.
(Message edited by Jimaz on December 12, 2007) |
Barnesfoto
Member
Username: Barnesfoto
Post Number: 4553
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 8:43 pm: | |
Ray's gotta write a book one of these days. |
Detroitplanner
Member
Username: Detroitplanner
Post Number: 1476
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 10:07 pm: | |
Yeah, tough gig walk the beat in Green Acres. Whats next? Palmer Woods? Berry?
Who are they kidding? They should be in areas where the drugs and hookers are. Just being visible would drop crime, heck they would not even need to bring a gun or talk to anyone! |
Genesyxx
Member
Username: Genesyxx
Post Number: 833
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 8:27 am: | |
I live in Green Acres and I agree with Detroitplanner. Put the police where they NEED TO BE. I doubt walking the beat in good neighborhoods will bring crime down overall. |
Granmontrules
Member
Username: Granmontrules
Post Number: 274
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 8:29 am: | |
Isn't the idea to keep them good? |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 1480
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 8:34 am: | |
I live in Green Acres as well. I think that the cops walking through our neighborhood is a good thing.
Their mere presence is a comfort to some who like things peaceful. That's where the rookies should be.
It makes for a good start for them to learn from after the academy. Reminds me of the earlier days. |
Detroitbill
Member
Username: Detroitbill
Post Number: 400
Registered: 09-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 9:05 am: | |
I agree, you have them patrol in all neighborhoods, because all citizens deserve it. Good neighborhoods need to be protected and kept that way just as much as the more speculative ones. You can only keep a city healthy by making its citizens feel safe ( or safer) |
Club_boss
Member
Username: Club_boss
Post Number: 230
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 9:17 am: | |
A cop on the beat is an old school method of policing and is a tried and true method.
The police officers actually get to know the people that live in these areas; they become familiar with the area as well as the individuals that reside in these neighborhoods.
It’s an excellent policy and hope it expands to more neighborhoods. |
Hamtramike
Member
Username: Hamtramike
Post Number: 479
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 9:36 am: | |
Also saw them walking on the eastside at Harper/cadieux. Walked into each business on the block. Took note of the business, names of the clerks and anyone else who might work there. Good to see..... |
Jimfrac
Member
Username: Jimfrac
Post Number: 1
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 7:42 pm: | |
The_ed
I live on Lichfield, which houses have had the plumbing stripped and how did you hear about it? |
Granmontrules
Member
Username: Granmontrules
Post Number: 275
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 10:25 pm: | |
jimfrac - you are on lichfield? We have a friend there as well! I just called her - she said she hasn't heard of any copper thefts on Lichfield? She is about 10 houses off Pembroke. |
Ravine
Member
Username: Ravine
Post Number: 1693
Registered: 01-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 10:55 pm: | |
Just checked out Ray's short memoir, and I really enjoyed it, as I always enjoy it when Ray takes a few minutes to share, with us, a glimpse of his former-- and clearly loved-- career and vocation. Thank you, Ray.
I don't much like today's coppers. How come the good molds always get thrown away, while the bad ones keep getting re-cast & re-used in perpetuity?
Not really looking for an answer, on that one. |
Pffft
Member
Username: Pffft
Post Number: 1424
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 11:00 pm: | |
Green Acres was obviously in place long before the mid-'60s TV show, right?
I suppose pre-Eva Gabor, it seemed like a nice countryish name for a neighborhood...?
I always loved "Sherwood Forest" too with its Robin Hood implications ... |
Llyn
Member
Username: Llyn
Post Number: 1884
Registered: 06-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 11:24 pm: | |
Wow, I didn't realize there were so many GA residents on dyes! (I live on Shrewsbury.)
quote:Yeah, tough gig walk the beat in Green Acres. Whats next? Palmer Woods? Berry?
I'm on the radio patrol in GA and I can tell you that over the last couple years we've had drug houses, armed robberies, break-ins, muggings, gun shots, car theft, and attempted infiltration by a gang.
To kept it in perspective, GA has about a thousand households... the size of a small town. Still, I would hope that we would get police protection as well... even if our part of town is "relatively" safer. |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 1540
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Friday, December 14, 2007 - 8:50 am: | |
"The_ed
I live on Lichfield, which houses have had the plumbing stripped and how did you hear about it?"
From Woodstock, the 5th house from 8 mile road. The grey house. It's been vacant for almost a year. |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 1541
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Friday, December 14, 2007 - 8:56 am: | |
"The_ed
I live on Lichfield, which houses have had the plumbing stripped and how did you hear about it?"
I heard about it from a neighbor who keeps in touch with the previous owner.
The house was supposedly sold but now the new owners have to get new plumbing installed.
I haven't heard of any copper thefts but there are a couple of homes there with copper trim. |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 1625
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Monday, December 17, 2007 - 1:58 pm: | |
Anybody here (from Green Acres) ever have any 'work' done by a guy named Wally?
You'd know him if you had. |
Genesyxx
Member
Username: Genesyxx
Post Number: 834
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Monday, December 17, 2007 - 2:14 pm: | |
Wally is a persistent little bugger. It was ok at first, but now I turn out the lights when I see him coming. |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 1631
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Monday, December 17, 2007 - 2:16 pm: | |
I wish I had more for him to do but I don't.
I last told him to come back in the spring. |
Scout
Member
Username: Scout
Post Number: 1
Registered: 12-2007
| | Posted on Monday, December 17, 2007 - 3:45 pm: | |
Anybody here (from Green Acres) ever have any 'work' done by a guy named Wally?
You'd know him if you had.
Nope. What sort of work does he do?
I saw a group of 6 cops on Parkside as I turned in from 7 Mile one day last week. Nice. |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 1646
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - 8:59 am: | |
Wally comes across as a neighbor who is down on his luck trying to make it by doing odd jobs around the neighborhood
for people; like rake leaves, clean gutters, shovel snow........whatever you have for him to do he'll do it.
He rides around on a 10 speed (i think or a 6 speed) looking for someone to give him some work.
He says that he lives on Woodstock between Lichfield and Woodward. |