It”s impossible to spend 23 years on the police force and leave without a ton of stories. On the eve of his retirement from the Columbus Police Department, soft-spoken officer Neal Taylor agreed to relive a few encounters.
Taylor came to Columbus from Guin, Ala., in 1987. Having grown up with an older brother in law enforcement, he spent his weekend nights playing cards at the local police department rather than running the town.
When the time came for him to don the uniform, Columbus was the first city to offer him a job, and he”s been here ever since. That is, he was here until Friday when he and his wife left for Tennessee — after a send-off celebration from the CPD — where she took a new job and he hopes to continue on the police force in his new town.
Long before he took over the records division, purchasing and inventory for the CPD, Taylor was a young patrolman eager to make a difference in the streets.
Describe the climate in crime and law enforcement in Columbus back in 1987.
I think we were probably a lot busier back then as far as the clubs and stuff. Back then, Seventh Avenue North was the spot. They think it”s hot now, but back then there was a club on every block. Then you had Catfish Alley that was filled with clubs and you had clubs on the south side of town.
I guess call-wise we get more calls now, but it seemed like there was more violence back then.
Seventh Avenue was nicknamed the block. It was so busy up there we had a special detail every Friday and Saturday night where two officers stayed over from the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift and worked the bar detail.
Did all those clubs close because they were being policed so heavily?
I don”t know why they closed. I don”t think the police department contributed to them closing. It seems like that group that hung out there got old and quit going. I see people nowadays that were in the clubs then doing all the fighting. They”re old and gray-headed and got kids. I guess society changed.
Walk me through a typical weekend in your rookie year.
Of course I was a lot younger back then so I thought “the busier the better.” I would come in at 3 p.m. and you would be wide open until you go home. There were traffic stops between all the calls you went on so it flew by because you were so busy.
Is Columbus a better environment to be a cop now?
Back then nobody had guns. You would have a stabbing every now and then but most of the time it was just fighting. Now I think it”s more dangerous. You”ve got kids that have guns.
Back then it was more hands-on fighting and people now are shooting each other.
What”s the key, in your opinion, to curbing the gun violence?
More police work, education and parents. It”s going to take a combination of all three. It”s going to be a battle.
There”s tension between the youth and police in any community. Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem is considering introducing a pants-sagging ordinance. Will that create more tension?
I think it would be a good law. We”d spend a lot of time in court if we start enforcing something like that, but I hope it passes. In my opinion it should start at home with the parents.
You were on the SWAT team for a while serving warrants with narcotics officers. What was the wildest incident you”ve had to respond to?
The most memorable was probably when an officer got shot at Town Square on Leap Year Day of 2008. It was a domestic dispute between a husband and wife and another man. The offender had already shot one person then the first officer on the scene pulled up and got shot.
Luckily, a surgeon and a nurse from the hospital were in the gym (in the shopping plaza) working out so it worked out great for (the officer).
I was on duty that day as a sergeant and was already going to the call. The offender got shot later by Walmart after he had taken the officer”s car and left.
That was the first time I”ve ever had that situation come up where an officer has been shot. Obviously, it”s like a family member. You take it personal but you”ve still got to handle it in business mode.
Any other stories?
One of the best chases was a guy on a motorcycle who robbed the bank in front of Belk”s a few years ago and we were chasing him all over town and even over in Alabama.
I never got behind the motorcycle but I was stopped on the side of the road when he turned around and came straight back into town. He passed me doing like 100 mph.
He eventually took a wrong turn down a dead-end street and got boxed in. He had to run and several officers caught him on foot.
I was told you had an interesting chase involving a horse.
(Laughs) I knew you were going to ask me about that.
This was probably in ”89 or ”90. We got a call in Catfish Alley there was a loose horse running around in the alley. Me and (Officer) Barry (Goode) had horses so we were experienced with horses. And this was just a young horse, maybe 2 years old.
We caught the horse over in the bottom where they”re doing the park. It had a harness with a leash. I had it by the harness and we were walking and, all the sudden, it just reared up and came down on top of my shoulders.
Barry was laughing and wouldn”t get it off of me. He just kept laughing. It took all I had to bear down and throw it up in the air and get myself out from under it. And he just stood there laughing and laughing and laughing.
So it was a punch line in the office. Then you had Uncle Bunky at the sheriff”s department, he drew a cartoon of it. And I come back the next day and the cartoon is on the wall.
Did that picture end up on TV?
No. It wasn”t fit to air.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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