Richmond police cruiser set on fire in Barton Heights
A parked Richmond police cruiser was found early today on fire and with its rear windshield smashed out by a brick.
No injuries were reported in the vandalism, which was discovered about 12:50 a.m. in the 2900 block of Barton Avenue, Capt. Dave Martin said.
The cruiser had been parked along the street in Barton Heights for a short time as part of the department's strategy of placing unmanned cruisers in neighborhoods as crime deterrents.
"One of the sergeants came back and saw smoke coming from the vehicle," Martin said.
After the fire had been extinguished, police found a brick on the floor of the car, Martin said.
It was not immediately clear what had been used to start the fire, Martin said.
"We've towed it to hold for an investigation, but we couldn't tell," he said.
Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers anonymously at (804) 780-1000.
-- Joe Macenka
Reader Reactions
I know….let’s ban matches and bricks along with guns….that’ll take care of the problem
RPD is too busy giving out parking and traffic tickets to concern themselves with real crime. Click it or ticket.
TheGoodShepherd,
Actually the police do need citizen’s. Otherwise there is not a job for the police to do -OR- a way to pay them without tax revenue from citizen’s. Police officers are truly public servants.
Barton Heights- don’t bother to call 911 when you need help.
If you don’t need the police, they don’t need you.
The men and women of the Richmond Police Dept. do an excellent job. The folks in the communities need to put their feet down and stop tolerating the activities associated with crime. As parents and property owners, they need to partner with the police by reporting suspicious activities and INSISTING that their children go to school and behave instead of throwing up their hands and doing nothing.
one of the things that i have found missing in this post is the lack of effective leadership in the richmond police department. regardless of what was said about rodney monroe’s personal life, etc, the crime level was lower than it has been in years..i dont know wtf the new chief is doing but between the robberies AND the shootings…..idk it’s just crazy. and using empty police cars as decoys is no new tactic, it has been employed for quite some time….it is supposed to be a deterrent when there is a lack of manpower..no officer, just get a car and the car alone will stop all crime by it’s mere presence lol .....and if u believe that i have a bridge to sell you lol…i do have to agree with ‘so bart resident’ though….a lot of the crimes in the communities can be deterred and even prevented by community activism…..don’t believe me? well, let’s look at it from this perspective…i am sure that there are a ‘few’ people that are at least 30 and older on this post…for those people, i am sure that they can remember when they were younger and the discipline factor that was involved…etc. if u got into trouble in school,the teacher and the principal punished you, then when you got home, whichever friends’ house you passed first, their parents punished you and then when you got home, you got it again..and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that because the entire community was involved and it wasn’t out of being nasty or mean or abusive, but out of concern for raising better people…..just something to think about…
To the residents of Barton Heights,
Another thing that might be a deterrent is to make the neighborhood look nicer house by house. That means actually working on a lawn instead of parking cars in the yard. Having a clean porch instead of having an old refrigerator on the porch for years. Telling your kids to bring in their toys. Get rid of the old junk cars that will never be fixed. Take some pride!!!!
Dealers will always congregate in areas where it looks like people don’t give a crap. I’m sure dealers from other areas and drug addicts too come to your neighborhood for that very reason. Clean it up and it can send a strong message.
Forget about privacy. I would support the installation of public cameras. That won’t stop the truly “bad boys,“ but those that have a little bit of sense will think twice…and/or at least go inside to do their crimes.
I find it absolutely HI-larious that the cops think an empty car will deter crime. How about more actual cops in the crime ridden areas!
Just a thought.
Dubiousthoughts is right. We should ask everyone on the street for their papers as they walk past. If they don’t have papers indentifying themselves, allowing them to travel, confirming their citizenship, and good standing in the ruling political party we should ship them off to Siberia…I mean Alaska! That’s the price we pay for security and a drug-free society. Because we all know that once liberty is extinguished so then will be drug use.
Freedom means you can do what the government lets you! Long live the workers’ revolution!
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