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Lawman Hangs Up Badge After 3 Decades On Force

Lawman Hangs Up Badge After 3 Decades On Force image
Parent Issue
Day
21
Month
June
Year
1988
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Lawman hangs up badge after 3 decades on force

By WILLIAM B.TREML

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Ann Arbor Police Staff Sgt. Art Hughes - high school football player, Air Force engineer, crack shot, traffic expert - is hanging it up after three decades on the force.

As a teenager, he played football when there was only one Ann Arbor High School, and when coach Hank Fonde’s teams went undefeated as a matter of right. As an Air Force flight engineer during the Korean War, he flew B-26 combat missions.

When he returned to the U.S., he found his vocation after he met two veteran Ann Arbor police officers, Robbie Robinson and Chet Carter, who urged him to apply for a job with the Police Department.

At a rookie’s annual salary of $4,100, Hughes started walking a beat downtown and in the State Street area. Later he moved to scout car duty and finally landed a job in the Traffic Bureau, working for the late Lt. H.D. Schlupe, long the department’s crack shot.

In the Traffic Bureau, Hughes also became proficient with firearms and won a flock of shooting awards in matches around the state.

He also was investigating traffic accidents, working with University of Michigan professors in wide ranging studies to learn the cause and effect of fatal crashes.

“Accident investigation hasn’t really changed over the years,” Hughes said. “You still have to gather the basic data at a scene. Some of our techniques are a little more refined, and we’ve got technology which wasn’t available when I started, but the facts you get from your on-the-scene examination still guide you in making a determination. There’s no other way. You can’t do it with computers.”

Accident prevention has become a major role of police departments around the country, Hughes noted. By targeting high-accident areas for increased radar patrol and erecting speed and warning signs in appropriate spots, the number and frequency of mishaps can be decreased, he said.

“We’re constantly redefining areas which need extra patrol or intersections which records prove are dangerous,” he said.

At one point in his career, Hughes was assigned to ride one of the department’s three-wheeled motorcycles. Although his primary duty was to check parking meters, the motorcycles also were used in escorts, parades, funeral processions and during demonstrations. Sometimes they were called on for even more active service.

“We used them for everything, including chasing fleeing suspects,” said Hughes. “I remember one time on an emergency run when we couldn’t get through the road traffic, I rode down a sidewalk after a guy.”

Officers rode the motorcycles all year, according to Hughes. “I still remember putting along on one of those things in the rain and snow - and once when it was 13-below zero,” he said. “You learned to live with the weather on those things.”

At one point in his career, Hughes was his own father’s boss. Richard Hughes, an Englishman by birth, worked as an Ann Arbor school crossing guard after he retired. His son’s post in the traffic bureau made him the elder Hughes’ boss.

“He was a pretty good employee, always on time,” quipped Art Hughes.