Mayor Richards (D) appointed himself as the new Chief of Fort Wayne Sign Police. He made the following appointments and assignments, noting they where nonpolitical in an effort to make sure the law was enforced equally. The department would have one Assistant Chief, two Lieutenants, and four Patrol Officers.
Assistant Chief - Don Schmidt (R)
Lieutenant - John Crawford (R)
Patrol Officers - Tom Smith (R) and Sam Talarico (R)
Lieutenant - Tom Hayhurst (D)
Parole Officers - Glynn Hines (D) and Tim Pape (D)
The briefing, before the media, continued with the Mayor showing off the new and fully equipped Sign Police cars. The department was able to save money by leasing these cars under the REAL POLICE master lease agreement. He noted the cars cost the city about $21,000 each and required $12,000 in special equipment. The total cost was a little over $220,000. The salaries would total about $324,000, not including fringes. He continued, he was not accepting a car or salary as he was already provided such, by being Mayor.
A local member of the media asked the Mayor had the city set up a support department to process all the reports, tickets issued, and fines collected for sign violations. The Mayor said, they had and it was being covered by the Jefferson Pointe TIF funds.
As the briefing was winding down an unknown lady handed the Mayor a paper. The Mayor looked at it and smiled. He walked back to the mike and said, "Ladies and gentlemen we have our first complaint!"
He requested Assistant Chief Schmidt to assign this complaint to Lieutenant Crawford. His reasoning was he did not want to show any political favoritism by assigning it to fellow Democrat Lieutenant Hayhurst.
The Mayor handed the complaint to Assistant Chief Schmidt, who had already heard what the Mayor had stated on how to handel this complaint. Schmidt read it over and nodded his head.
Schmidt handed the paper to Lt. Crawford. Crawford, slowly read it over. He looked to the sky, as if in deep thought. He pulled a map from his back pocket and retrieved some color markers from his briefcase. He drew some lines on the map and then looked up with a smile.
Lt. Crawford walked over to table where his two assigned officers where setting. He laid the map on the table and pulled out his pointer. He pointed the direction he believed the two patrol officers should take to the scene of this serious breech of local law.
Officers Smith and Talarico followed along with Lt. Crawford's presentation. They nodded their heads in understanding. They stood up in their smart new uniforms with the bright little "Sign Police" badges reflecting the lights of the room.
Smith and Talarico walked toward the door as Lt. Crawford asked them, "Is it OK the media tag along in their cars? It sure will send a message to the local criminals. We are not messing around!" Both officers nodded that they where alright with the request.
The two officers went to their cars and waited until the media had lined up behind them. There was WPTA, WANE, and five unmarked cars. In the unmarked cars their where radio reporters, writers, and photographers for the two local papers. The group headed out from the basement of City-County Building. When they got to the top of the ramp Officers Smith and Talarico flipped on their overhead lights. Immediately, traffic came to a stop and the procession of cars moved out onto Calhoun Street.
They headed south and then turned onto Main Street. With lights flashing they headed west for a short distance. They made a U-turn at an intersection so they would be on the south side of the street. Officers Smith and Talarico positioned their cars far enough up the street so the procession of cars could all park on Main St.
The two officers exited their cars and started looking for the illegal signs that was reportly violating community standards. Nearly everyday these two officers had walked this part of Main Street and never had seen the violation.
One of the local TV media people walked up to Officer Smith, whispered in his ear and pointed down the street about twenty feet. Officer Smith looked in that direction and then motioned for Officer Talarico to look that way.
They talked to each other in a quiet level before Officer Talarico reached up to his label mike and called for a tow truck. He requested a "incident number" from the 911 dispatcher and was given one. The dispatcher radioed back that it would be about 10 minutes before the tow truck would be there.
While waiting on the tow truck the two talked to the local media. They told them several times that the Chief and Assistant Chief of the Sign Police had made it very clear that everyone was going to be treated the same. Political, church, or commercial signs where all going to go if they violated the law. Everyone was going to be treated as equals!
Officer Smith pulled a bright new report from his car and started filling it out. He wrote down the address of its location and who the signs may belong to. As part of the investigation they went into one store and talked to a young cook. They where informed by the cook, the signs had been there since he started working there, six or seven months.
About this time, a shorter gentleman came walking up to nearby business, unlocked the door and went in. The officers followed in and ask the man if he knew how long the signs had been out front. The man said they showed up three days after he had moved in years ago. He went on and said people using his building never complained about the signs. The officers told him that it made no difference. The law was the law!
About this time the tow truck showed up. He flipped on his lights to warn traffic and jumped from the truck. He looked around, went up to the officers and told them his truck could lift up the signs but he would need a flatbed to carry them. They told him to get a flatbed there ASAP. He called his company and they told him one would be there in about five minutes.
While waiting on the flatbed, all the media where talking into microphones for video reports, taking photographs, taking notes, and the rest where on their cell phones breaking the news to their radio station. By now traffic had nearly come to a halt on Main Street and people where slowing down. There had been nearly three wrecks from people trying to see what was going on.
Finally the flatbed truck arrived and within about ten minutes the signs had been moved to the flatbed. They where secured to the flatbed with chains for safe transportation. The driver quickly pulled away and the signs where on their way to city property on Wallace Street. They would be destroyed by officials and a $25 violation ticket would be sent to the owners.
Officers Smith and Talarico said goodbye to all the media and returned to their cars. They called the 911 dispatcher and reported they where available for their next call. The streets of Fort Wayne where now cleaner and free from the trash of unwanted signs. The city could sleep better tonight!
Here is a picture taken on September 15, 2007, a little after noon. It clearly shows the sign violation.
If you have not figured this out it is right outside the door to the Allen County Republican Headquarters. Where four members of the SIGN POLICE visit weekly. See based on their law the newspaper boxes promote a company (N-S, The Journal, USA Today) and they are gone!!!! Of course Fort Wayne has had a law for scores of years you could not block a sidewalk but no one knew how to enforce it. Thank goodness we have the Sign Police
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