Friday, March 18, 2016
YOUNGSTOWN
Officers George Bayer and Helen Scott both worked South Side beats when they joined the police department, and both also retired Friday.
Bayer, who had been on the force since 1981, began his career in Car 205 and ended it as part of the department’s jail unit, which escorts prisoners back and forth from the Mahoning County jail for appearances in municipal court.
Scott began her career in 1989 and worked Car 206 before becoming an investigator in the Juvenile Bureau, then being moved to the jail unit, where she finished her career working with Bayer.
Both said the South Side was a hectic beat in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as gangs formed and then began to exert their influence on the drug trade. Scott said it was not uncommon to have 25 calls per shift, and Bayer said there were times on afternoon or midnight turn where he was getting calls before he even left the police garage.
“A lot of times you would run red [emergency lights] right out of the garage,” Bayer said.
Scott said as a juvenile investigator, she worked a lot of homicides, and she said she was struck by how many gang members would attend those funerals.
Read more about these officers in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.