tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4153985804832811048.post2304168337080446746..comments2024-03-18T16:22:10.302-04:00Comments on Urban kchoze: Police box: policing a walkable citysimval84http://www.blogger.com/profile/10615053214354191224noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4153985804832811048.post-80443726833958294222016-05-19T09:43:40.454-04:002016-05-19T09:43:40.454-04:00Here's a police station in Brisbane. As you ca...Here's a police station in Brisbane. As you can see, it's a storefront. Big open windows; someone's parked a pram in the window. People can see in, the police can see out; you can see the counter in there and it's not a tiny little window to speak through.<br /><br />https://goo.gl/maps/ZWWo9oEUhAB2Moschopshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09013291452873719384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4153985804832811048.post-47184877538237471902016-04-04T13:00:07.950-04:002016-04-04T13:00:07.950-04:00I do find it amusing (and sad) that if you have to...I do find it amusing (and sad) that if you have to go to a police station, which as shown is usually rather foreboding, you then get shunted into a nasty little lobby and have to talk to the officer on duty through a window with an intercom and one of those bank teller slots. Even small villages where the police station, town hall, and fire station are all in one place can be like this (I actually had to fish a set of building permit drawings through the round cut-out in the glass once). Not very hospitable to be sure. <br /><br />Cincinnati has (had?) a handful of what they call police substations. Aside from sounding like an electric utility transformer location, these are some small facilities usually in storefronts or even shared with other front-desks like you might find at a community center, apartment complex, or theater with just one or two officers helping provide a neighborhood presence. Sadly I think these may have been phased out because I can find no current listing of the locations. Some older ones still show on street view though: <br /><br />https://goo.gl/maps/96cau3pNnnS2<br />https://goo.gl/maps/Xpu6rHxLcpy<br />https://goo.gl/maps/pfWzrPtCdGs<br />https://goo.gl/maps/4R25ScC5WpP2<br />https://goo.gl/maps/rUxsLnNzNhG2<br /><br />Even neighboring Fairfax has one as a rare freestanding building in a Wal-Mart outlot https://goo.gl/maps/azxTE3iAGiv Jeffrey Jakucykhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04092631645389171565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4153985804832811048.post-75374734497751319992016-04-03T23:53:14.262-04:002016-04-03T23:53:14.262-04:00To be fair, big police HQs can certainly be big bu...To be fair, big police HQs can certainly be big buildings. Japan also has these, where they house forensic laboratories, cells and the like. Police boxes aren't the only thing they have (except in small rural villages).simval84https://www.blogger.com/profile/10615053214354191224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4153985804832811048.post-47425077815143780562016-04-03T23:51:54.262-04:002016-04-03T23:51:54.262-04:00Yeah, you people can get pretty crazy down there. ...Yeah, you people can get pretty crazy down there. But then again, being in cars didn't help the cops who were shot in New York last year during the whole Michael Brown thing by a guy who just walked up to them and put bullets in their head while they were sitting in their car. But thinking about it, such police boxes could also be the target of protests.<br /><br />That's the really insidious thing about bad police-community relations. Even if you try to bridge the gap, people will scared because closer relationships mean more vulnerability, and if both sides mistrust the other, neither may be willing to take the first step. It's like a trust fall in a way.simval84https://www.blogger.com/profile/10615053214354191224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4153985804832811048.post-59584548739517107912016-04-03T19:53:05.318-04:002016-04-03T19:53:05.318-04:00To be fair, many in police work do understand thes...To be fair, many in police work do understand these issues. For example, BPD has community service officers who participate in local community meetings regularly, build up relationships, and keep in touch with people. They also train officers on bicycles for patrolling.<br /><br />Sadly, BPD HQ is one of the worst designs imaginable. Dead plaza, faraway location, desolate surroundings, fortress, bordered by Southwest corridor and by high speed road. Some of this is due to failed city planning: the location happens to be near geographic center of Boston, but around some of the worst of urban renewal.<br /><br />Oh, and the Southwest corridor bike path is technically state land. So you can get mugged in plain sight of the BPD HQ and be out of their jurisdiction. Politics at its worst.Matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02027332620204904993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4153985804832811048.post-12826134730332585912016-04-03T18:37:45.947-04:002016-04-03T18:37:45.947-04:00I love the idea but I can understand why police he...I love the idea but I can understand why police here in Austin, TX would be hesitant. A man fired numerous unprovoked shots at the downtown Austin police headquarters as well as the federal courthouse, Mexican consulate, and a few other buildings. See http://kxan.com/2014/11/28/austin-police-shut-down-city-streets-for-active-shooter-investigation/ As far as I know, this was unrelated to anything local police had done, but merely the fact that they were authorities. A few years before that, a man flew an airplane into offices of the federal Internal Revenue Services in Austin.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com