From the expressions on people's faces — even dog's faces — it must have seemed like a dire emergency during the evening of Aug. 2.
That's when a line of nearly 25 vehicles, police cars and fire trucks blasting through local neighborhoods with loud speakers, flashing lights, deafening horns and wailing sirens while celebrating National Night Out.
Sponsored by Target Inc., the event featured Baltimore County Police officers and deputy sheriffs, members of the Providence Volunteer Fire Company and representatives of Target escorting the Towson Area Citizens on Patrol volunteers to convey a message and a show of solidarity.
To emphasize the point, a banner stating "Crime is not welcome in Towson," adorned the side of the fire truck.
The message was serious, but within the motorcade the mood was light. As the procession passed though Campus Hills, the loud speaker on the old ambulance in the line boomed out, "Hi Jody and Charles," courtesy of Wesley Woods, president of the Towson police community relations council.
Like many of the COP members Woods had called ahead, asking friends and neighbors to show their support by turning their lights on, gathering on the street and waving as the motorcade went by.
Unfortunately for organizers, the weather was incredibly hot and humid. Despite the fact the route included well over a dozen communities, less than 80 people turned out — and some of them covered their ears instead of waving.
Granted, two children in Campus Hills held up signs saying "Thank you," a women in Wiltondale blew kisses, and a man with a beard in Rodgers Forge held up a sign proclaiming "COP National Night Out." And the noise momentarily drew the attention of the kids in a ballgame in a field off Taylor Avenue.
On the other hand, a little boy in Stoneleigh flew into his mother's arms, a dog down the street howled, and anothercanine in Riderwood Hills lifted its leg. Then there was a young man standing on the corner with a huge puppy cowering in his arms looking woeful.
"Dogs don't like us," said Pat France, who co-chaired the event with TACOP president Mike Calwell.
With County Council aide Judy Gregory riding shotgun, France was driving immediately behind the lead vehicle, a Jeep SUV with red and blue lights driven by Officer Kristy Fuka, who coordinates the Precinct 6 COP. Fuka was accompanied by Towson councilman David Marks and his 8-year-old son Nicholas.
Her instructions were clear, France said as a police officer stopped traffic to allow the procession to leave Towson Place shopping center. "We go wherever Kristy goes. If she goes to Philadelphia, we go to Philadelphia."
If Fuka failed to make one of the three pages of turns, it would be a big problem. Keeping the procession moving through every intersection was a precise operation.
One or two police officers had to be on hand blocking traffic and waving the wailing caravan through red lights at major roadways, such as Charles Street, Loch Raven Boulevard, York Road and Bosley Avenue.
Going through red lights is counter-intuitive for any driver, France noted, adding that she quickly adjusted to the idea. On the way home after her first National Night Out, she caught herself just before running a red light.
There appeared to be a preponderance of bald Precinct 6 officers controlling traffic until closer examination revealed it was the same officer, Jamie Feelmeyer, waiting at many of the major intersections for the convoy to arrive.
Similarly, Officer Gary Doucett seemed to suddenly appear miraculously time after time in front of the procession no matter where it went.
It soon became clear there were only three policemen involved in clearing intersections, including Officer Robert Huncher.
As soon as the last vehicle in the procession passed through an intersection, the officers would jump in their vehicles, gun their motors and roar past everybody in the procession in order to take over the next intersection.
The process went like clockwork until the intersection of Putty Hill Avenue and Loch Raven Boulevard, where the first police car unexpectedly stopped — it turned out the officer wanted to talk to a colleague — and France and Gregory saw and heard the police car behind it skid to a halt. It was a narrow miss, but a miss just the same.
"Those guys love it," France said. "Adrenelin just runs through their blood."
"It was fun," Huncher said afterward. "But after 11 years of running with lights and sirens, you get used to it. It becomes regular driving. I feel more comfortable driving with lights and sirens than I do driving normally."
As France drove, Gregory delivered a running commentary on members of her extended family, which of them used to live in which of the houses they pass and who is buried where.
This was a night for fun, not vigilance. The officials and officers talked about landscaping, color of the flowers and about bygone stores and restaurants. They waved at bystanders. They enjoyed themselves.
On a more somber note, on a side street just east of Loch Raven Boulevard, the procession approached the backs of two young men walking together on the sidewalk. The two did not turn around to see where the noise was coming from.
That's a tip-off for COP members, who volunteer their time to keep watch over their neighborhoods and report anything suspicious.
Both France and Gregory wonder if the two teenagers had been up to something. They can just imagine one telling the other to "keep walking and act normal."
But the procession passed the boys by.
Afterward, Marks pronounced the evening a success. "We had a wonderful time," he said. "This program symbolizes Towson. It's very well organized, well structured and involves people engaged with their community."
The best part of the event was "riding in a police car through traffic," Nicholas said. He offered advice about "never unbuckling your seat belt" and brought up the topic of theLoch Ness monster before his father advised him to reserve that quote for another day.