How do(did) cops find addresses so fast? (pre-GPS)

[ZombieZoo]

And do they pretty much really on GPS today?

How did they do it back in the old days? Was learning "XX-hundred block of X-Street" a big part of breaking in on a new part of town?

[winnre]

Same way pizza delivery guys do., You learn the streets very well, or dig out a map when you need more info.

[1911su16b870]

Memorize them.

[Ron-Solo]

There is a rhyme and reason to the street numbering. Learning the block number breakdowns is important. Each city or county area is different, but they usually follow general guidelines.

Some people don't realize how important directions such as East/West can be in some cities. 900 East First St and 900 West First Street are 18 blocks apart in most cities. Also, the type of street (Avenue, boulevard, drive, court, lane, etc) can be critical. For example, in the City of Lakewood, there is Lakewood Boulevard and Lakewood Drive. They are parallel streets about 1/2 mile apart. Both intersect Carson St and both have a large number of traffic accidents. In emergency situations, those seconds can be precious. City engineers have a duty to prevent things like that from being approved.

I worked in the City of Glendora where they had a tract of houses known as the "Oak Tree" neighborhood. All the the streets were "Oak Tree" and had a suffix of street, drive, terrace, court, lane, circle, etc and most intersected each other. Additionally the hundred block numbers were all similar. The planning council person who approved that was grossly irresponsible regarding the safety aspect.

[Triad]

Beat knowledge is a lost skill.

[vintagearms]

i never relied on GPS and in reality will slow you down. Going thru the academy and doing tons of ride-a-longs you get pretty good at it. Part of our training was just being observant.
While on patrol an officer will slam on his breaks, yell to you he had been shot and ask you to pretend to call out on the radio for help. You had better know the street you were on and either an address or a cross street. If you didnt, he would tell you to get out and walk back to the PD. Luckily never happened to me because I knew the drill ahead of time.

[NorCalXJ]

If you familiarize with your zone, you will be able to arrive to addresses fairly quickly. Lots of your encounters will most likely happen in a certain area, but not always.

[Armed24-7]

It doesnt take long to learn the streets and how they are numbered in your beat. I started out using maps, but several years later, started using GPS,. I always kept maps handy just in case the GPS stopped working.

My department is in the middle of transitioning all our stations to a MDC (mobile digital computer) which on which we receive our calls for service and it also has GPS built in. When we receive a call, it takes 1 click of a button to automatically set up a route to the call and it navigates us right to it. There are many other amazing features these MDC's have which greatly enhances our safety and the public's safety. But I am not going to reveal all that.

I rarely have to look at a map or use the GPS anymore, but when I need to, the MDC is very quick at navigation, much faster than any map or manual input GPS system.

My station is fully equipped with MDC's and I have really learned to love it.

[4FTTY]

Lots and lots of driving around. I still like the Thomas guide better than GPS. Run enough calls and learn the cross streets and you can find just about anything.

[Clutch-n-Throttle]

^^
Beat me to it. The good old Thomas Guide was present in every LEO war bag

[retired]

When I was on training at Lakewood station I worked Hawaiian Gardens. I was expected to have the hundred blocks North, South, East and West memorized before I came out to the station and I did as did the others. Once you knew that, you could fairly easily find your street in the Thomas Guide. It helped that the city was so small also.

Referencing Ron's post; Diamond Bar had two major streets that ran North and South, but also intersected each other. The RTO was really puzzled during a pursuit when the deputy said he was N/B on Diamond Bar Blvd. and turning N/B onto Grand Ave. The station dispatcher told her the deputy knew what he was doing and to just go along with it.

It's the same thing with Golden Springs, which is an East/West st. with 5 digit addresses that changes to a N/S st. with 4 digit numbers after passing beneath the 60 fwy and then changing names to Temple Ave. as it entered Pomona. That would confuse a lot of newbies to the area.

Armed24-7, I am glad the dept. is finally entering the 21st century. I recall in the early 80s, talking to a couple of Long Beach officers who had driven into Paramount. They each had hand held radios and a MDT in the car. Our dept. did not have hand held radios for the deputies. We would turn our PA on when we were on a traffic stop or inside a house or business on a call. Sad, really sad for the largest dept. of its kind. You stay safe out there.

[P5Ret]

The doughnut shop had a big ol map up on the wall. Starbuck's doesn't. That's why they need GPS now.

[barbasol]

When I first got started in real estate I drove around a lot and relied heavily on Thomas Guide. Then I learned how the block numbering works. In Long Beach the 0 block starts at Ocean and Long Beach Blvd. Many of the neighborhoods have streets that are in alphabetical order. I learned that the even addresses are on the East and South side of the street. If you look at a map for awhile or pay attention to street signs its not hard to learn in your neighborhood. Most people just look at a screen or go where Siri tells them too these days

[epilepticninja]

The Thomas Guide is your friend. Once you get familiar with the different beats, then you start relying more off of memory.

[Timbob55]

Thomas Bros. map book and a good dispatcher.