By Michael D. Martin, E.C.P.D.
Retired
About the author...Michael Martin (pictured front row, far right in the 1981 photo) is a retired veteran of 25 years on the Eden City Police Department, and has penned a number of anecdotal writings recalling his experiences.
XV. Gator Griffin
This tale is about Eden Police Officer, and now, Rockingham County Deputy
Sheriff,s Deputy Tommy Griffin and is as best of my memory absolutely true.
In 1974 the Eden City Police Department hired a
fine young man named Tommy Griffin and assigned him to Sgt Posey Meadow's
shift. At that time, people were still getting used to being one city
and there really was not enough officers to properly patrol the city. The
Eden Police Department's budget seemed to be of lesser importance in the grand
scheme of things because having a fine fire department meant a lower
insurance rate for the citizens. There was water and sewer infrastructure
problems that had to be addressed and to tell the truth, in the early days,
dollars were stretched thin and police officers did not always understand
the problems our city council was dealing with.
Well, there was the Draper beat, I remember my
first time patrolling Draper in 67, Draper folks did not like the idea of
strange police officers arresting them or giving them traffic citations.
Tommy Griffin was assigned to the Draper beat. Back then, when you caught
the Draper beat you felt kinda like you were at the far end of the world and
you might see your Sergeant a couple of times a night. Draper was usually
quiet during the week and you did not answer many calls but there was a wild
and wooly club down on 700 called "The Nightspot" where a
fella could go and dance, listen to a live band, watch eight or ten
fistfights, buy an illegal drink and generally forget a hard week in the
mills.
There was one character who worked hard in the
mills and partied hard at the "Nightspot" every weekend, he
was big, he was strong, and on the weekends, he was hard to handle. I'll
just call him "Bubba" Since help for the Draper car was
usually a good eight minutes away. If you tried to arrest him, that was
gonna be eight long minutes Bubba was gonna be beating your head. Most
fellas working the Draper beat would just as soon let Bubba make his way
home.
The only problem with that is, they forgot to
tell Tommy!! On his first weekend in Draper, about one AM, Tommy
called in that he was stopping a suspected drunk driver, license number
xxxxx. The dispatcher ran the number and immediately notified the Sergeant
what was about to happen. The Sergeant and the Central car sped towards
Draper to retrieve what ever was left of Tommy. Before they could get there,
Tommy came on the radio "PD I am 10-8 (back in the car) and 10-72
(prisoner in custody) and in a few minutes, Officer Tommy Griffin
pulled up to the Spray Jail with a scuffed up Bubba in the back seat.
Sergeant P.O. Meadows told me later," that little Griffin boy, he's
gonna be alright."