By Lauren Pack, Staff Writer
9:52 PM Monday, February 1, 2010
HAMILTON — Michael Halcomb and Tom Long are nosey. They are always on the lookout for shadows in the night, something out of place or just plain suspicious activity in Butler County neighborhoods.
And residents don’t mind a bit.
Halcomb of Trenton and Tom Long, a Hamilton resident, team up regularly to be the eyes and ears of the sheriff’s office as part of the Citizens on Patrol program. Both laughed when asked if the pay is good.
“Oh, I have mine direct deposit,” said Long, a 70-year-old retiree, with a laugh.
They, like the eight other COP members, are volunteers.
Patrolling in a special cruiser with a yellow light bar, COP members assist deputies with traffic control at crashes and fires, aid to stranded motorists and making vacation checks for residents who call the sheriff’s office for security when they are out of town.
“They really free up deputies to do more pressing duties,” said Lt. Jean Collett, support service superior in charge of the unit.
Last week, Long and Halcomb were checking houses in a Liberty Twp. subdivision when they spotted a man who just didn’t seem to be “acting quite right.”
“It was dark and raining to start with. He was walking in the street then stopping and looking around. He didn’t stop to ask for directions, he wasn’t walking a dog and he didn’t have a cigarette,” Long said, noting all possible reasons to be walking in a storm.
Halcomb added, “he was fidgety. It just didn’t fit.”
COP units are not armed or permitted to act if presented with criminal activity, so Long said they called “the big dogs.”
Deputies thought the man may be a thief looking to kick in a door or swipe a stereo from a car. Detectives determined he was wanted on warrants from Hamilton Municipal Court and took him into custody.
Last year, the COP unit made 724 vacation checks and drove 10, 550 miles on patrol.
Halcomb chuckled remembering a startled resident who returned home early from vacation and was loading his riding mower when COP volunteers came for a vacation check.
“We called the deputies out on him,” Halcomb said. “After it was straightened out, he was glad we were doing our job.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2168 or lpack@coxohio.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment