Detroit Police Department’s Former Headquarters

Detroit River on a cold January day

This was taken in January 2016 on a icy cold day during sunset.

Detroit Police in 1915: Dumb “Traffic Cops” Make City Safer

Back in 1915 Detroit was a city of about 600,000 residents and 22,000 automobiles. To more effectively deal with the growing traffic problem the police department installed a semaphore system (see the below depiction) throughout the city.

The policemen controlled the signal on the semaphore by turning the word “Go” towards traffic to allow it to move or turning the word “Stop” towards traffic to stop the traffic. This method was so successful that other police departments throughout the country implemented the same practice.