Next time you're at Briarwood Mall, take a look at Ann Arbor Fire Station #6 from Briarwood Circle. If you look from the area of JCPenney or the Firestone garage, you'll see the hose (drying) tower on the southwest side of Station 6.

That hose tower is unique because it has windows facing the Briarwood parking lot.

The reason for the hose tower windows was to create a surveillance platform to watch Briarwood’s parking lot. But it never really worked because the trees planted around Briarwood blocked the view of the parking lot from the tower. 

Ann Arbor's Fire Station No. 6 was once used by the city's Special Investigations Unit.

Rich Kinsey | For AnnArbor.com

When Station 6 was built, it also housed the Ann Arbor Police Department's Special Investigations Unit. The Special Investigations Unit started out as grant funded breaking and entering - B&E - squad in the early 1970s. The unit surveilled known criminals and arrested them as they attempted to ply their trade. The surveillance platform at the fire station was placed there to combat car thefts in the parking lot.

The reason SIU was housed away from city hall was to protect the identity of undercover surveillance officers and their vehicles from the criminals the unit would deal with. The vehicles were actually kept at another enclosed parking facility when not in use. In all the years SIU operated out of Station 6, only one particularly sharp crew of professional burglars figured out where the unit was housed.

It was great working out of a fire station. There was a lot of good-natured banter back and forth between the firefighters and police officers housed in Station 6. SIU provided a lot of comedy relief for the firefighters. They particularly enjoyed our “Hawaiian Shirt Fridays.” 

The firefighters took great pride in harassing the cops about to go out on surveillance who sometimes looked more like climbers of Everest than police officers. (It is an unfortunate maxim of surveillance that if you are physically very uncomfortable, you are probably doing a good job.) Our discomfort was the source of a lot of witty humorous material from the “hose jockeys.”

The firefighters many times also fed us. One of our detectives was famous for taking second helpings and explaining to the firefighter chef that he was unsure if he liked the food, so he had to try some more. After one particularly fine firehouse dinner, a wise detective lieutenant announced, “You know if I’d have been born smart instead of handsome, I’d have been a firefighter.”

Station 6 was a great place to work and built some strong interdepartmental relationships. The SIU office was moved from Station 6 in the early 1990s. Station 6 will always hold a special place in the hearts of the cops who worked there, thanks to the firefighters who were such good hosts.

Pictured left to right: Detective Bob Flynn, Officer Rick Cornell, Officer Rich Kinsey, Deputy Chief Don Johnson, Officer Toni Draugelis, Detective Sgt. Dave Miller, Officer Jim Tieman, Detective Greg Stewart, and Officer Doug Barbour. 

Photo courtesy of Rich Kinsey

Lock it up, don’t leave it unattended, be aware and watch out for your neighbors.

Rich Kinsey is a retired Ann Arbor police detective sergeant who now blogs about crime and safety for AnnArbor.com.