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The Granville Historical Society Oral History Project 2001 - 2002
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28) Police and Crime
Barney Fife on a Cattle Run(Debbie McPeek) When the cattle barn and stockyard were down here, the cattle would sometimes get out and come up in town. Back then there was not much crime. Things were pretty loose. I still remember one of the patrolmen was kind of a Barney Fife type individual. I can still see him, tall and thin, and he was just a stitch. There he was out in the street with his gun pulled, trying to corral the cows and get ‘um back. It was pretty comical. I think we were a lot like Mayberry sometimes.
Police Chief Helps Troubled Kids(Eric Glaser) Red Pettit was the police chief here at Granville back in the 1960s and early 1970s when drugs were bad all over. He drove a school bus. And he really enjoyed working with the kids. He gave kids that got in trouble a real second chance and a third chance. It wasn’t like, "OK, you’re in jail. I’m throwing the key away." He worked with them. And he really, really tried to make them think of something else that they could be proud of for themselves instead of just throwing away their life [ with drugs ]. And I think he opened a lot of people’s eyes. I think he was a great influence on our community. Crimes and Crack Cocaine(Steve Cartnal) In the 1980s crack was not heard of. But crack is very prevalent now. And that I think is the underlying cause to a lot of these thefts that are going on. They’ll grab things; they’ll pawn them. They’ll do whatever they can for money. Crack is one of the nastiest things that society has ever had to deal with. It is so strongly psychologically addicting and that high is so intense that it causes people to do things they would never do otherwise. Most all of our thefts that we deal with are a symptom of the crack problem. Preventing Crime in a Small Town (Steve Cartnal) We haven’t had much serious crime. . . . We have a lot of time to spend out there on patrol looking for problems. We have a reputation of being very strict in traffic enforcement. That in itself is what keeps a lot of these people that would rob us and steal our stuff out of our homes, that goes a long way in keeping them out of here. They know they’ll get scrutinized or they know they may get stopped. Frequently in traffic stop situations you’re dealing with somebody that had far worse intentions but just didn’t get a chance to do it. We don’t have a great deal of major crime and sometimes from a police officer’s perspective this is a boring little town! . . . But the fact is policemen get into the job to do what policemen do. Or the young guys think they want to do what policemen do. The older you get the more you realize this is an ideal situation to be a police officer in. I’ve got people waving at me with all five fingers and not just one! The small size is a positive too. And that’s what keeps it personable and it keeps it friendly and keeps the problems to a minimum. People even call me by my first name.
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