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The power of mom and family: how ‘community policing’ really works
Sir Robert Peel is credited with establishing the first modern police force back in the 1820’s in Great Britain. Some 190 years later, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl loves to quote the former British Home Secretary when talking about “modern” community policing.
“The police are the public and the public are the police,” Peel said. “The police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”
Thursday offered a perfect example.
Police were called to the 900 block of North Gettysburg on a report of an aggravated robbery. When officers arrived, they determined it was another in a long string of “jacboy” robberies. Jacboys are groups of young teens, often armed, who target lone pedestrians.
In this case the victim was a 16-year-old robbed of his cell phone at gunpoint, according to the police report. The victim told police he was approached by four young men, one of whom he knew from grade school. His former friend asked to use the victim’s cell phone, and the victim agreed. The former friend began to walk away with cell phone in hand.
The victim asked for his phone. The former friend then said, “Put a gun on him,” according to the police report. That prompted one of the four “jacboys” to produce a small handgun and wave it around. The four then fled.
The story did not end there.
Three hours later, the two officers were called to Kammer Avenue. A mother wanted the officers to take in her son, the former friend, for the robbery. When police arrived, the mother said she had been contacted by the her son’s aunt. The aunt told her the victim had activated the GPS on his stolen phone and traced it to the aunt’s house.
The victim and his grandmother then came to the aunt’s house and confronted the former friend and a group of young men on the aunt’s porch. The former friend told the victim that the phone had already been given away. The victim and his grandmother left.
Hearing all this, the former friend’s mother called police, who took her son, the former friend, into custody. The former friend is being questioned by robbery detectives.
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