The Michigan Daily-Friday, June 19, 1981-Page9
it shift with the AAPD
soon. "You'll like Richard," he told me,
"He's a real colorful man, a fun partner."
Before picking up his partner, though,
here would be a quick run through the
Maynard Street parking structure. "Lots
of smoking, lots of drinking in there,"
Heinold informed me.
Sure enough, within a minute there were
two arrests, but for neither of the above of-
fenses. These would be "Urinating in
Public" violations, charged against two
teenagers on the second level. Since they
were more or less "caught in the act,"
there was little resistance. One of them,
the one with a Pinckney driver's license,
threatened a law suit as we drove away,
but Officer Heinold hardly noticed.
9:00 P.M. Richard Blake, Heinold's par-
tner, is a tall, portly black man with a
bushy moustache and a slick twirling
ability with his nightstick. Well-known to
the merchants and street-people near
campus, Blake is clearly pleased with his
role on the force.
"You make a lot of friends walking this
beat," he said as we drove off. "You form
relationships that will last."
H EINOLD TOOK the car downtown,
and we paid our first of many visits on
the Fourth Street crowd - people who
were reputedly prostitutes, pimps, drug
dealers, or thieves, and others who were
visibly alcohol-wrecked, impoverished,
and idle. "They'll stand in the middle of a
downpour," Heinold said of this latter
group. "They won't even know that it's
raining."
"Get off the sidewalk, Charlie," called
Blake from the passenger seat. Charlie, a
heavily dressed man with a broad-rimmed
hat, sat against the front of the Velvet
Touch adult bookstore.
"Aw, move on," he responded wearily.
"I'm not kidding, Charlie, get off the
sidewalk," Blake repeated as Heinold
drove the car forward. At the next inter-
section, encountering another squad car
headed the opposite way, Heinold greeted
the officer. "Will you make sure Charlie
gets off the sidewalk back there?" 'he
asked. "Sure, no problem," said the cop in
the second cruiser, as if this was a com-
mon request.
"There are people on this job," Richard
explained as we began radar monitoring
the traffic on Stadium Boulevard, "You
can watch them go to a high point, and you
can watch them drop."
10:30 P.M. Heinold and Blake patrolled
the driveways of the Ann Arbor Airport,
which is considered University terrain to
the AAPD because of the student group the
Michigan Flyers. There was no trouble,
only the small matter of an apparently
abandoned Renault Le Car facing the run-
way.
The cruiser approached the Renault,
both officers wondering aloud what it
could be doing at this location. When two
heads appeared suddenly from the front
seat - male and female - their curiosities
were dispelled. Heinold suggested an
alternative site for' the couple to view
planes taking off - down the driveway a
little way and to the left - and they
politely followed his suggestion.
12:00 A.M. After a break at the nearby
Wendy's restaurant, we continued the
night shift. For a change of pace, we would
hit the north side, specifically the Cedar
Bend Road-Island Drive Park area, where
a lot of people tend to come out at night.
Driving down the Cedar Bend gravel road,
past the popular "Lover's Lane" spots,
there were no lovers - or anyone - in
sight.
As we drove ,into Island Drive Park,
however, we did interrupt a social activity
of some sort. A large group of black men
were huddled around a picnic table, and
appeared somewhat startled by our ap-
pearince.
"It's either a crap game or a good sized
pokey game," Blake muttered as the car
cra led to a stop on the gravel road. "No
vehidles after 10 p.m., gentlemen, you
know that," Heinold announced. They
obediently dispersed to their respective
carsand left the park.
12:30 A.M. Having not received a call
from headquarters in some time, the two
officers decided to patrol the North Cam-
pu parking lots for awhile. Again, there
were two instant sitting ducks. In the
School of Music lot were two youths, who
were apparently busy rolling joints when
the officers arrived. They looked up from
the car they were sitting in and grimaced
helplessly.
Officer Blake seemed particularly im-
pressed by an Army mess kit that was
loaded with a rolling machine, papers, an
empty vile, a pipe, an extra bowl, and
many assorted seeds. "Going to grow your
own crop?" he asked. One of the suspects
solemnly shook his head.
After writing up their $5 possession-of-
marijuana tickets, Heinold and Blake
decided to check out the covert party
locations east of campus. For many miles
of wooded roads, we drove, occasionally
stopping at tree-cleared lots or open fields,
where the parties tend to transpire. But at
this time, on this Friday night, there was
no one present on this route.
"This time of night, you've got to dig up
anything you're going to do," Blake said.
1:30 A.M. We returned to the station and
dropped off the "evidence" from the
marijuana arrest. While Heinold delivered
it to the proper compartment in the
evidence room, Blake and I spoke with the
duty command officer, Donald Carnahan.
Although he described this night as
"quite slow" for a Friday, he expressed
skepticism that the tranquility would
remain for long. "You get two or three
slow nights, and then the roof falls in. You
never know," he said.