When is the last time you saw. . . ?

I see the police directing traffic when there are events.
Last week was a classic car show up and down S. Congress, and they were there directing.
Also, when the Zilker Botanical Garden is having a show, or when the Umlauf Sculpture garden is having an event.

I also seen police directing traffic when a major traffic light goes out.

But for everyday traffic, no.

Did police used to spend their shift directing traffic, or just for busy times?

Walking the beat, no. But yes to bikes, and the occassional horse downtown.

Rush-hour at busy downtown intersections or pretty near constantly where there were yet no traffic lights installed. In NY, Times Sq. seemed to have a permanent traffic detail, 24/7, even with traffic lights. Now you only see traffic being directed by a uniform if there's a parade or -- as you say, chai -- a major sporting event.

The only time I get to see a cop on foot, directing traffic, is when the traffic lights are down.. That happens though at least once a year, somewhere where I am travelling...

In the City of Adelaide, there will always be police walking down Rundle Mall, the main city strip.. Apart from that, only cars. Actually, notibable these days and not being offensive, is alot of the older cops aren't that fit, if you know what I mean... Maybe it's because they sit down too much

All police here have a revolver on their belt, unless they are off course in training.. What freaks me, is arriving at International Airports especially Asia, where it's not a 9mm rather, a rifle..

When were traffic lights installed? Around what year?

No, no, you shouldn't be 'freaked,' FS; that's supposed to make you feel safer. Just ask OmSig David.

In LA, when an intersection's lights were plonked. Some intersections there (labelled F as the worst) were iffy enough with signals working. Moved from LA in late '98, so, sometime in '98.

I think police rode bikes down ocean front walk, memory scant on that as I tended not to go there at the most boisterous times, aka late weekend afternoons.

When I visited Mexico, I saw armed guards (possibly police) at every shopping center, in front of supermarkets - not banks alone.

Ex and I went to La Paz in Baja, Mexico on some kind of advertisement I found in the LA Times travel section. Something like $119. for four days (meaning three nights). The hotel was a newly built Presidente. And who should be in town but el presidente, Lopez Portillo. Guys with rifles were stationed on balconies. Few guests in the hotel. S t r a n g e. But we did our usual, walked the town, ate spectacular shrimp tacos. Came to the town square, and there was a loudspeaker with Portillo speechmaking. Nobody in the square was paying attention, at least that I noticed.

Tangent re rifles, sorry.

Seen from the front, a rifle is much more scary than a pistol.

Again, sorry for the digression.

Yeh, I first went to mexico in '66, flew into Guadalajara. Gunmen around important buildings.

Didn't see that much in the other times I went, though I was never in Guadalajara again, but it was a startling first impression.

The only time I’ve seen them here in St. Pete is when a Ray’s game is going on.

We will see them in June during Gay Pride but we have to pay them 60K to maintain the crowd for one day.

I've had 3 visits ... great vacations in Mexico - once in 1981 (cruise) and twice in 1999 and 2003 to Guadalajara and then Puerto Vallarta. On all these visits, I saw armed guards commonly sprinkled about. I knew I was clearly in foreign lands. Never saw any trouble and never really wanted to. Not sure whether or not I felt better as a result of the armed presence. Were I merchant located there I might, I think.

Getting way off track -
I counted once, been there nine times, and so what. Always a visitor, but sometimes visiting mexican friends I'd gotten to know in LA. I used to semi spat with Calamity Jane about safety re going to Mexico - I am just not afraid there, despite recent stuff. But her point of view is growing on me. I'd still go to Mexico the city in a blink.

I am embarrassed how little I knew about Guatemala when I went there with two girlfriends - one of them arranged the trip and we could go to Guatemala too for the same money or just about. The country I saw happily had seething happening that I didn't know about until later. Anyway, there is a market town in the highlands, Chichicastenango, a tourist mecca. There we were looking at huipiles and the goosestepping soldiers tromped through. I don't think I snapped their picture.

Back to police riding around with proper guns - anyone at all here knows I'm not a gun fan. Police need to be armed as well as the populace. Whether the populace needs to walk around armed is a matter of present contention.

funny story...

coupla days ago I rolled through the itty bitty berg that is just southa me. saw a real nice 5 gallon bucket sitting right beside the road. decided I had enough buckets that I didn't want to stop and check it out.

When I came back an hour later, the cop was out there with traffic stopped, and the volunteer fire truck was headed to the scene.

Clarence (the town cop) then started in a very official manner to guide us past the scary bucket (probably waste motor oil) one lane at a time. He looked at me funny cuz I was laughing.

they were still out there with flashing lights an hour later...


every time I work the arena, I hafta break a security line. they all jump at the chance to be traffic cops for the events. pays well...

When the driver's in Columbus, Ohio began streaming through red lights, so that the people with the green light couldn't go, and they would then fill the intersection on the red. It became common to see them directing traffic. They also had beat cops and mounted officers in commercial areas where shop lifting was common. They don't use revolvers--they have 9mm automatics on their belts.

a. Whenever the last time was that I went through a major intersection where the traffic lights were out and a cop had had time to get there.

b. Cops walk the beat in a couple of our major trouble spots. They use bicycles and horses along the banks of the river that runs through the city, and at apparently random other times and places.

b. I don't know what sort of gun they carry.

They used to be like British cops and not carry guns routinely....it was a big deal when that changed.

on our travels to europe , arriving in amsterdam or frankfurt , the planes were usually accompanied by one or two APC as soon as they came close to the runway .
in frankfurt you often saw border-police with sub-machine guns - finger on the trigger - in the airport .
this was about 10 - 20 years ago when there was a lot of trouble - don't know what it is now .

perhaps walter can give us an update .

if you like to see the Hamburg Police in action in the RED LIGHT DISTRICT -
you might enjoy watching this video .
during the daytime the police must operate at least in pairs - after sunset no fewer than EIGHT are allowed to respond to a call .
................................................................................................
this video runs for about 90 minutes - so might go on fast forward to pick sections of interest .

http://www.spiegel.tv/#/filme/davidwache-special/