7th Police District
loses longtime captain

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

The people of Mayberry had very good reason to like Sheriff Andy Taylor, America’s favorite TV police officer of the 1960s. He was kind, wise and always gentlemanly.
The people of Bustleton, Somerton, Fox Chase and the rest of the 7th Police District have been able to identify with the folks of Mayberry quite well for the last five years or so.
"I’m more of the Andy Griffith-type," said Capt. Aloysius Ignatius Martin last week when asked why he never seemed to command one of the Northeast’s four police districts with the kind of heavy hand common in plenty of other locales.
Martin was speaking of the actor who portrayed and grew to personify the Sheriff Andy Taylor character during the top-rated program’s eight-year run.
"I think it’s because of (my) life experience," said Martin, who is on leave from the district pending his official Aug. 15 retirement after more than 30 years with the department. "Patrol officers have it hard enough. I think we can maintain a professional standard of discipline without creating more tension for ourselves."
Martin has been setting a similar example throughout his tenure in the 7th district, and likely long before. The West Philadelphia native moved to the 7th in 2002 after about two years in the busy 12th district in Southwest Philly.
Prior to that, his career assignments included being a lieutenant in Internal Affairs, the Northeast’s 2nd district and the 14th district in the Northwest Division. He also was a sergeant in the Mobile Crime Lab, Fairmount Park’s 90th district and the 18th district in West Philly.
As a patrol officer, he worked at Philadelphia International Airport and with the Accident Investigation Division and South Philly’s 1st district.
Martin spent the first 17 years of his career earning frontline experience as a patrol cop and sergeant. Despite further promotions, he’s never fully distanced himself from that role. He believes this approach has served him well as a patrol commander.
"I was just a street cop who was lucky enough to make captain," Martin told members of the 7th Police District Advisory Council during farewell remarks to the civilian group last Thursday.
Martin outlasted former Capt. Ed Kachigan by one month as the longest-serving commander in the district since the PDAC was formed. His years in charge were marked by a series of successes in crime reduction and public safety.
He was one of the architects and the direct supervisor of the department’s Roosevelt Boulevard Initiative, a targeted traffic enforcement program on a state highway considered one of the most dangerous in the nation.
"When I first got here, (Inspector) Joe Fox had just left. We were in the initial stages of the Boulevard project. (Inspector) Jerry Daly continued it and assigned me as Boulevard Initiative manager," Martin said.
The captain was responsible for developing procedures and schedules for patrol of a roughly 10-mile stretch of 12-lane highway between Ninth Street in Hunting Park and the Bucks County border in the Far Northeast.
The police department obtained a $400,000 state grant to subsidize the program. Most of that pays overtime to officers, who drive the highway and issue tickets to scofflaws while also acting as a deterrent to would-be reckless drivers. The program still receives state funding and has resulted in a safer highway.
"There are less accidents and reduced fatalities," Martin said. "That was mostly due to the perseverance of the officers. They really participated and felt they were making a difference."
Meanwhile, Martin also tried to make a dent in the biggest and most persistent problem facing residents of the 7th district, who have among the highest average property values in the city. That problem is property crime.
Rather than chase after burglars and thieves one by one, Martin tried to take a more intelligent approach, linking multiple crimes to individual crooks and linking those crooks together into their own networks.
"We’ve been effective in identifying organized groups in burglaries and recovering stolen items (from them)," Martin said.
Aside from Roosevelt Boulevard, traffic is also a constant concern elsewhere in the district largely because there are simply too many cars on local roads during rush hour.
The 7th district is a hub of sorts in the midst of suburban Bucks and Montgomery counties and business and commercial destinations to the south. Main routes like Byberry Road, Southampton Road, Red Lion Road, Grant Avenue and Bustleton Avenue bear the brunt of the traffic.
Though it was not his role to take sides while in uniform, Martin can now say that he favors the extension of the Woodhaven Road Expressway westward into Huntingdon Valley to relieve some of the traffic pressure.
"Daily traffic enforcement is something (with which) we have to be persistent, consistent and fair," he said.
The same approach is needed with school kids, whose names and faces change from year to year, but who pose the same challenges to police inside and outside of school.
Martin arrived in the 7th district several months after the highly publicized November 2001 beating of George Washington High student Matthew Gremo in a school stairwell. The captain assigned two of his officers to patrol in and around the school full time.
Officers Karen Hunter and Patricia Herschmann have promoted a safer school environment and better relationship between the school and its neighbors, Martin believes.
"As far as community policing, I’ve learned more from him in the two and a half years I’ve been working for him than in the (rest of the) seventeen years I’ve been on the job," said Lt. Bettina Baldere.
Martin doesn’t plan to take things easy in retirement. He and a fellow officer, Lt. Dave Curry, are aspiring entrepreneurs.
Martin, a longtime youth basketball coach and former West Catholic player, holds a patent on a "sports ball-retrieval apparatus." In short, the device is like the basketball equivalent of a pitching machine in that it helps the user hone his or her "catch and shoot" skills.
Martin and Curry’s company, Swishful Thinking LLC, is marketing the devices.
Back in the 7th district, Inspector Theresa Young is filling in as interim commander until a permanent replacement is assigned there. According to 7th PDAC chairman Mike Myers, the police department is waiting for Mayor John Street to approve a series of promotions before assigning a new captain. Typically, new promotions trigger a citywide reshuffling of police command posts.
One of Martin’s last acts as captain was to take part with the PDAC in honoring the Officer of the Month, Officer Mary Luce-Caterino.
On March 15 at about 11 p.m., Luce-Caterino arrested a man who allegedly jumped into a woman’s car at Bustleton Avenue and Tomlinson Road and assaulted the victim. The woman informed Luce-Caterino at the scene that the man tried to snatch her pocketbook, grabbed her and tore her clothing. Luce-Caterino took the man into custody. He was charged with assault, robbery and related offenses. ••