Citizens Tour Police Station

     Yesterday, a small and lucky group of Fort Lauderdale citizens got an inside tour of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. Fascinating!




     But the first thing you notice, as they walk you through the entrance halls to the briefing room, is   ….. strange building.


                        


     It’s very old, has thin hall ways, no windows, lots of stairs. Each section is compartmentalized, requiring clearance to get from here to there. Reminded me of a secure corn maze!

                                          
………………………….

     …….  They started our tour with a welcome from Chief Adderley, then a talk by the burglary division, and then brought in the Homicide Sergeant.


                

       Here is the Murder Board, which lists the murders that happen in the City each year. There has been 5 murders so far this year, and there are about 175 open murder cases on file, dating back to the 1960’s.

     One case the Sergeant detailed, a senseless murder of a 67 yr. old Viet Nam vet by four teenagers, (“they beat him and shot him to death”), had the Detective choking up. He said they had made arrests in the case in January.

                                      ………………………

     We continued the tour.


                    

     The fingerprint examiners showed us the “millions” of fingerprints they store. The oldest one dates back to 1921 !

                               ……………………………………

     The CSI area was very interesting. They said it doesn’t happen like it does on T.V. “DNA does not come back in an hour”!

     We put on special goggles, looked at special photographic equipment, special dusting techniques, even this ……

              

     …..  horse semen under infrared!  ( we didn’t find out if the horse was guilty!)

                              …………………………………………..


     As if the horse product wasn’t odd enough, we then saw this ….   

                         

                 ………  guess he’s awaiting his pension date?

                                    
………………………………………

     ….. Then we were off to the shooting range. The Detective described to us the Police weapons, showed us the range, even showed us their bullets. He talked candidly about being in a constant state of readiness on the job.


               


                           
                                              hollow point

                                     
…………………………………………..


     ….. We finished the tour at the booking area, what also used to be the City Jail before it was closed a few years back.


               

      The booking area is run by Reserve officers (retired guys that didn’t like sitting at home!) We are very lucky to have them.

     FLPD arrests more people than  all of the other Counties Police Departments combined – about 11,000 last year.

     The old jail/booking area is in rough shape.

              

    
     Truth is, it’s time to build a new Police Department.


     As we left, we saw this poor sap being booked –



                               


       A fun time was had by all ……

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *