Powhatan Five-0

Coming to Powhatan, VA? Better slow down, cause the fuzz is everywhere.

When driving home from my sister's place on the night of Thanksgiving, I couldn't help but notice there were three different speed traps set up on Rt. 60 which is the central highway running though our county. For those of you who don't know, until recently, one speed trap in our county would be considered a lot, and three in one night is pretty much unheard of. Now that I think of it, I have noticed more police set up on the sides of Rt. 60 trying to catch speeders. This begs the question: What are the authorities up to? Is there some new law enforcement initiative designed to crack down on incidents of speeding to increase public safety? Is there a shortfall on tax income and the government is looking to make some of that up through fines? Is government threatening to pull funding from police departments unless they show they are doing enough police work to justify the money they receive?

Many of you who know me know I have mixed feelings about our local sherriff's office. Our deputies seem professional and well trained and equipped. And, crime isn't running rampant in our county, so they must be doing something right. However, every encounter I have ever had with our sherrifs deputies has sort of left me questioning what they are doing with my tax dollars.

A week before the first Christmas Daleen and I lived in Powhatan, our house was broken into. I came home from work and noticed a bunch of closets were open and several drawers in our rooms had been pulled out and dumped. I'll admit I'm a little slow and didn't realize right away what had happened. All I could think of was, "I wonder what Daleen was looking for and why was she in such a hurry that she couldn't clean up after herself?" Daleen arrived home shortly after me and when I asked her, she replied, "I didn't do that!" I immediately had this sinking feeling when I realized we had been broken into. If you've never had someone break into your house and steal your things, it is a rather unsavory feeling.
We took a quick inventory of what was missing. Mostly cash and jewelry. We had gifts under the tree but those were untouched which I thought was strange. Next, I called the police.....and then we waited... and waited.....and waited.
I can't remember how long we waited, but it was a long time. Finally, one of the deputies arrived and asked us a couple of questions. He then called the "investigator" who also took a considerable amount of time to arrive. The deputy was in his uniform, the investigator was in jeans and a sweatshirt, wearing some kind of camo ballcap. The investigator guy had a camera and he took a few photos, looked the whole house over, and asked us a few questions. Standard stuff I thought. And then.... then he then went into a long discussion about how hard it was going to be to find out who broke in and that they probably weren't going to figure out who did it. When I heard this I started wondering, "Am I in the twilight zone?" It wasn't what I really wanted to hear. Also, from the tone of his voice, I was guessing he wasn't probably going to try very hard to figure it out. The deputy notified us they would be phoning us in the next day or two to give us an update on the case and give us the case report number for our insurance. And that is the last time we ever heard from the sherriff's department. They never came back by. They never called. It was as if they had left and promptly forgot all about us. Let's just say I was a little dissappointed by the whole experience and even now, when Christmas approaches, I start to get a little nevous and wonder if this is the year we'll get broken into again. I wasn't expecting a lot. I wasn't waiting for David Caruso and the CSI team to show up and start inspecting my house for footprints and "mysterious fibers". But I did want to feel like the people who I pay through my taxes to at least make a serious effort. Dissappointing....

Then there is the curve in the road near my house. People come flying down my road and hit this curve and go into the ditch. It's not a weather factor. People have wiped out there in the middle of the day on a dry road. While no one, since we've lived there, has ever been seriously injured, I have never been able to question one of these folks to see what they were doing when they had their accident. Although I'm certain the answers would all be the same (going too fast and not paying attention to the road.) There is a set of mailboxes they normally take out. Although there is a power pole they've hit along with a neighbors fence and my culvert pipe. We usually see three or four accidents a year at this spot. Usually when I am out cutting the grass by the road in front of my house and a car comes, I can't help but remind myself if the oncoming car goes out of control, I probably wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time. Why doesn't the sherriffs office do something about that instead of sitting out on a straight stretch of highway like Rt. 60? I would think my neighbors are getting tired of having to replace their mailboxes.

We've had an increase of crime this year. From what I can tell, the sherriff's office has handled it fairly adequately and like I said, it's not like we are cowering behind locked doors while criminals are out running wild in our county. I generally feel safe where we live and I know our local law enforcement has a lot to do with that. As our community grows, we are sure to see a corresponding increase in crime. I want to feel good about our local cops and the tax dollars we use to pay their salaries. I want to feel they are working as safely as they can while responding to the needs of the community and helping to provide a safe place for my family to live and play.

So whatever you do, be sure you slow down when you come out to Powhatan. You never know where the Five-O might be parked, ticket books in-hand, waiting on you to come flying down the road.