J.D. Williams is shown on his old beat around Washington Avenue in Newport News on Oct. 16. Lt. Williams recently retired after 42 years with Newport News Police. (Sangjib Min, Daily Press / October 16, 2009)
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NEWPORT NEWS — Lt. J.D. Williams had only been on the Newport News police force a few years on an autumn night in 1969, when police were searching for three men wanted for burglaries in Franklin.
It was 2 a.m. and Williams' shift was over. He was headed down Mercury Boulevard when he spotted the burglary suspects driving ahead of him.
Williams caught up to the men near the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and told them: "Show me what is in the trunk."
The men opened the trunk and tried to jump him. Standing at 6-foot-2 with a slender build, Williams was stronger than he looked.
"I ended up putting one in the back of the trunk and the other in the back seat," he said, with a chuckle.
"You don't realize how much pressure you're under until it's over with," said Williams. "It happens so fast — so quickly. It isn't until later on that you realize the magnitude and the degree of the situation. You're in the moment."
Williams found himself in many high-stress situations that threatened his safety while serving with the Newport News Police Department. He retired after 42 years of service last month — a tenure that witnessed vast changes in police technology and in crime, as well as in the community and in himself.
As a boy, he had no dreams of becoming a cop. It was not until he was on break from college that he visited a police station. He'd heard they were hiring.
"I had no idea what to expect, but that it was an admirable career," he said. Williams' journey as a police officer in Newport News began when he was 21. On his first day, he picked up his equipment, which included two pairs of pants and a shirt. Then he was sent to the tailor.
"Now be here at 7:30 a.m. ready to go to work," the police chief told him.
"In those days, you walked a beat," Williams, 63, recalled.
His first beat was in downtown Newport News along Washington Avenue. It was at the center of the action during the 1960s. There were shops, department stores, restaurants and bars lining each side of the street, with the shipyard as a backdrop.
Every hour he used a call box to phone the police station to check in or to report crimes.
During those days, a paddy wagon would travel around the city and round up suspects for processing.
Williams' assignments through the years included investigations, the K-9 unit, community programs and uniform patrol. Police today deal with many of the same roles, although today's cops have another challenge to contend with — gangs. For much of Williams career, gangs were absent from the police department's radar.
"We didn't have gangs in the '70s and the '80s. Gangs started showing up here within the last five years," said Williams, who said a lot of organized crime emerged in Newport News within recent years. "It's been escalating at a steady rate since then."
The closest thing to gangs were burglary rings, he said.
Those groups usually involved four or five juveniles who committed burglaries together.
The burglaries were such a problem in the 1970s that Williams worked with the "Hit Squad," a federally funded program where officers worked on decreasing the number of robberies and burglaries. The program lasted three years.
It was 2 a.m. and Williams' shift was over. He was headed down Mercury Boulevard when he spotted the burglary suspects driving ahead of him.
Williams caught up to the men near the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and told them: "Show me what is in the trunk."
The men opened the trunk and tried to jump him. Standing at 6-foot-2 with a slender build, Williams was stronger than he looked.
"I ended up putting one in the back of the trunk and the other in the back seat," he said, with a chuckle.
"You don't realize how much pressure you're under until it's over with," said Williams. "It happens so fast — so quickly. It isn't until later on that you realize the magnitude and the degree of the situation. You're in the moment."
Williams found himself in many high-stress situations that threatened his safety while serving with the Newport News Police Department. He retired after 42 years of service last month — a tenure that witnessed vast changes in police technology and in crime, as well as in the community and in himself.
The early years
Williams was raised on Maury Avenue, just north of Harpersville Road in Newport News.As a boy, he had no dreams of becoming a cop. It was not until he was on break from college that he visited a police station. He'd heard they were hiring.
"I had no idea what to expect, but that it was an admirable career," he said. Williams' journey as a police officer in Newport News began when he was 21. On his first day, he picked up his equipment, which included two pairs of pants and a shirt. Then he was sent to the tailor.
"Now be here at 7:30 a.m. ready to go to work," the police chief told him.
"In those days, you walked a beat," Williams, 63, recalled.
His first beat was in downtown Newport News along Washington Avenue. It was at the center of the action during the 1960s. There were shops, department stores, restaurants and bars lining each side of the street, with the shipyard as a backdrop.
Every hour he used a call box to phone the police station to check in or to report crimes.
During those days, a paddy wagon would travel around the city and round up suspects for processing.
Williams' assignments through the years included investigations, the K-9 unit, community programs and uniform patrol. Police today deal with many of the same roles, although today's cops have another challenge to contend with — gangs. For much of Williams career, gangs were absent from the police department's radar.
"We didn't have gangs in the '70s and the '80s. Gangs started showing up here within the last five years," said Williams, who said a lot of organized crime emerged in Newport News within recent years. "It's been escalating at a steady rate since then."
The closest thing to gangs were burglary rings, he said.
Those groups usually involved four or five juveniles who committed burglaries together.
The burglaries were such a problem in the 1970s that Williams worked with the "Hit Squad," a federally funded program where officers worked on decreasing the number of robberies and burglaries. The program lasted three years.
