My sister lives in a small town in western Massachusetts in the hills outside of Amherst. For many years they had only a nighttime police force. When the police officers clocked out of their day jobs, they were on call for any police activity that occurred. This left the town open to house break-ins (often committed by ne’er-do-wells from Springfield) during the day as daytime coverage was left to the State Police who were responsible for covering a large area. The break-ins were a problem until one burglar struck late in the afternoon when an armed officer was available. The officer shot the robber in the course of arresting him. News of this incident spread and the break-ins subsided.
Not that long ago Rochester had a much smaller police force. When Walter Pierce was Chief, his wife fielded police calls from their home with radio phones in every room, so she could answer quickly while doing her housework. Policemen patrolled in their own cars and for many years there would only be one officer on duty at night and that tour often ended around 10:00 pm.
Several years ago, when the Museum exhibit featured Fire and Police, I remember reading one newspaper article where one of the first officers to have a ride-along police dog said how he welcomed the company as driving through Rochester (a very large area for one man to cover) at night with the fog rising off the bogs was basically spooky.
This all leads to this article’s main story. At one time an important piece of a Rochester police officer’s equipment was a chainsaw. There was a time when bigger mischief than trick or treating could happen on Halloween. On just such an evening, Chief Pierce was the one officer out and about when he got a call for a downed tree. He went to investigate and checked out the tree. Returning to his car to go for help (remember this was a time without cell phones or pagers) with tree removal, he found that another tree had been felled, making it impossible to leave.
The hooligans/vandals took advantage of the situation and celebrated Halloween by torching any haystack they could find in town. Without a chainsaw in the trunk, the Chief was trapped and so they became standard equipment in any car used to patrol Rochester. Times have certainly changed with enough officers to patrol all of Rochester in fully equipped police vehicles which would make any tricksters rethink Halloween mischief. Happy Halloween and celebrate responsibly.
By Connie Eshbach