white poison industries

I decided to approach my subject, the Des Moines Police Station, from the top down.

The Police Station’s sole radio tower:

Drainage holes on the roof:

An owl meant to scare off the pigeons has little effect. Perhaps the pigeons, discerning birds that they are, have noticed the fact that he’s tied down to the lightning rod and is therefore harmless.

I caught a helicopter landing on Mercy Hospital’s heli-pad.

Further exploration of the roof led me to a small brick building with a very small door. In my best Popeye voice, I called, “OPEN SEZ-A-ME!”

The building turned out to be an elevator mechanical room. Graffiti going all the way back to 1919 was etched into the walls.

I got some impressive views of the city from the roof.

The East Village:

The confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers:

The Ft. Des Moines log house near the ball park:

The Capitol:

Inside the elevator building there was a dark hole in the floor with a ladder leading down. I didn’t need a white rabbit to tell me I was going down that hole.

The “attic” of the Police Station is a 3-ft. crawl space filled with ventilation ducts, pipes, and debris from a hundred years of building maintenance.

And of course, more graffiti.

I wonder what these hash marks were counting.

Sacre bleu! Another hole with another ladder!

This would have been one too many holes for me for one day.

Next I went inside to catch some of the action in the dispatch room.
I think I counted eight dispatch stations like this.

This person was relaying information to the Fire Department.

A Fire Department liaison kept watch.

On a quiet Saturday afternoon, not all the stations were in use.

The gnome who guards the server room was on break, so snuck in to shoot some pictures.

Here we see the network servers on the left half. The green circuit boards on the right half are the radio system. Different towers around the city route through different circuit boards, for example, there’s a tower at Merle Hay, a tower at Plymouth Place, a tower at the airport, etc.

The data gets to ride a roller coaster. This reminds me of the Super Screamer at Adventureland. Is that still around?

Telephone wires:

Next stop: the holding cell. They wouldn’t let me get into the actual area where prisoners are held, but I did get to see the place they keep people while they’re being processed.

Some of you may have seen this area before! (wink) If you were too drunk to remember what it all looked like, then let this serve as a memento of your jailhouse experience.

The view from “inside.”

Regulations are very important when you’re in the hooskow. Know your rights and responsibilities as a prisoner.

*sigh* Empty promises…

This bench looks cold and unsanitary.

These are what they lock your handcuffs to if they don’t want you roaming around inside the cell.

This is where you store your piece, if you’re packing.

Des Moines’ very own Green Mile?

“Stop here.” I had visions of Jake Blues leaning all the way forward to the counter to sign for his personal belongings when I saw this. “One Timex digital watch, broken. One unused prophylactic. One soiled. One black suit jacket, one pair black suit pants. One hat black. One pair of sunglasses. $23.07. Sign here.” Classic.

The “Green Mile” turned out to be a storage closet. I’d rather think of it as jail for bad artwork from the 70s. Did your parents have one of these paintings? Mine did.

And so ended my exploration of the Des Moines Police Department.

Many thanks to my buddy Mike for escorting me around the premises.

I’m always looking for suggestions about places to photograph for Des Moines on the Down Low. If you can give me inside access to some cool place, let me know about it! You can comment here on the website or drop me an email at kelli.griffis@gmail.com.