After a terrorizing year when 130 homes in the Greenacres-Woodward community suffered invasions, dozens of residents formed a citizens band radio patrol back in 1987. It functions so well that the mayor of Detroit, several Detroit City Council members, the city clerk, police administrators and a hundred neighbors came to New Prospect Baptist Church to celebrate 30 good years.

“These neighbors have an extraordinary commitment to their community,” says Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. “Most people don’t stay in a job for 30 years and these people do this for love of their community. Congratulations to the largest and most effective CB patrol in the city.”

To be sure, the patrollers pair up with a cell phone or CB radio and volunteer once a month or more to drive every block in the half-mile-square neighborhood. Some nights are as boring as watching paint dry and some nights are punctuated with excitement from a lost kid to a drunk pitched face down in the snow or a stranded semi truck.

Certificates were given to 42 members of the patrol who logged more than 37 hours of patrol activity in the neighborhood bordering Livernois, Pembroke, Eight Mile Road and Woodward Avenue. The veterans can name every street backward and forward.

Eight members of that “37 club” were part of the original members, including Sandi Kirksey, who organized the patrol, Willie Bell, Dorothy Pierce, Doris Waddell, Trish Walsh, Mittie Dean Crawford, Barbra Stanko and Dwight Kirksey.

“We did not take our community back from blight,” says James Ward, president of the Greenacres Woodward Community Radio Patrol, “We don’t intend to give it up.”

Stay power was reflected in how many guests wore gray jackets commemorating the 30th year of the patrol and swapped stories of their biggest adventures on their three-hour volunteer shifts.

Sandi Kirksey, who moved into Greenacres-Woodward 44 years ago with her husband, Dwight, says the patrol was the best solution to a crime wave and a project the neighbors could achieve.

She quoted Margaret Mead on the power of organizing, who said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

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