LORDSTOWN Display cases reveal crime is everywhere

The displays were assembled in the 1980s.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LORDSTOWN -- Walking into the village police department, you can't help but notice the display cases.
Inside the wooden frames, behind the glass, are revolvers, sawed-off shotguns, various knives, brass knuckles and even nunchakus, the martial arts weapon.
All of the pieces are items that were seized during routine traffic stops and even some domestic violence cases in the village over the years.
The displays were put together more than 15 years ago by then- Capt. Bill Penney and then-Sgt. Merle Fick, explained Police Chief Brent Milhoan.
Many of the items in the cases are now considered dated, since seizures these days can turn up more illegal drugs and more serious firearms, such as semi- and automatic guns, he added.
Types of guns
Most of the guns in the cases are revolvers and single-load shotguns.
Fick, who retired from the department more than 15 years ago on a disability, said the intent of the displays was to keep the public from being naive.
"We wanted to educate the people that, hey, this stuff really is coming in to Lordstown," he said.
Fick said that normally, the weapons confiscated would be disabled and returned to the village after they were used in criminal court cases. Often, he noted, the items would come back with an order that they be destroyed.
"People never see a lot of these items," Fick said, noting that after police would confiscate them, they would sit in an evidence room and then make an appearance in a courtroom before being destroyed. Fick said he wanted residents to know these potential weapons were "coming through our small, little town."
As the years pass, the displays take on more of a historical perspective, but they still serve as an important reminder, Milhoan added.
"I think it's important the people realize, regardless of the size of the community, the potential is there for some dangerous things to come in or happen," the chief said.
"I don't care what town you're in. You can't become lax and think that nothing will ever happen."
It's not 'Mayberry'
He said village residents and even people outside of Lordstown, have always perceived the rural community to have a "Mayberry" quality about it, referring to the fictional TV community policed by Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife in "The Andy Griffith Show."
He noted it's even easy for officers, including himself, to think that routine traffic stops are always easy, and forget that there's always a potential for danger.
"You could conduct traffic patrols for 10 or 12 years, and everything will go well, and there's never any problems," he said. "But there's always the chance of that one time."
A look at the display cases hanging in the lobby of the station, he said, only reiterates that fact.
Milhoan said officers from the department would take the displays to the annual Apple Cider Festival to show residents what police were recovering each year. That practice eventually stopped, Milhoan said, and the cases haven't been updated for some time.
Now, he said, weapons and drugs seized during raids, traffic stops and other police calls are usually held in an evidence room at the station until they are needed at trial. Once a year, he noted, officers will clean out what's not needed and take it to WCI Steel, where workers will melt down the weapons in a furnace.
slshaulis@vindy.com