Friday morning in the Mill Village, Roanoke Rapids.

Officer Daniel Hundley has just finished an assault investigation and is returning to his foot patrol. He will soon be joined by Sergeant Mike Moseley.

Walking the beat.

Hundey has a simple strategy during his foot patrols. “I walk up and down the back alleys. It surprises more people.”

The questions vary, the biggest is why isn't the officer in a car? “I tell them we like to mix it up.”

Says Moseley, “The biggest thing is to do something different.”

At one point they stop at a makeshift memorial marking the exact spot Lorenzo Tann Jr. was gunned down, allegedly by Herman Lee “Smurf” Edwards.

Now, Moseley says, “It's a beautiful fall day.”

“It's nice to see them,” says Delancey Edmonds, who is working on his truck in the backyard.

Moseley jokes with Day.

Not all are glad to see the officers, one man taking a chance to show some insolence by walking in the middle of the road.

When Hundley asks the man if he has ever been hit by a car, the man says, “Yeah.”

“How'd it feel?” replies Hundley.

“It felt pretty good,” the man answers.

There are local and state laws which require pedestrians to use the sidewalk.

As the officers continue their walk they see people they know and stop briefly to chat.

Hundley helps a truck driver looking for directions.

Continuing, they see one woman walking in the middle of the street and another comes to the street from her house. “They're fine, they don't bother me,” the woman who comes from the house with a young son, says. “The police are like anyone else, they just have a uniform and a badge.”

The woman does make it known she doesn't teach the young boy to either respect or disrespect the officers.

Another woman, who is later identified as Lynette Day, tells the officers about the fights she's been in and how she is essentially a frequent flyer at the police department, something the officers already know. “Yeah,” she says, “I like the police. I don't have no problem with the police.”

One man, who declines to give his name for publication, is a community watchdog, who isn't scared to call the police. He says he informed the people who stole his car and television set that he would call the cops on them if they returned.

This is a man who paid the thieves $200 to get his car back. “I feel like it was better to do that than them shooting up my house.”

Moseley talks to a passing motorist.

Overall, living in the Mill Village is not bad, he says. “It's usually quiet. Most of the stuff is coming from people from the outside.”

Having lived in Baltimore, the man says the thugs around here wouldn't last long there, that at night they run and hide. “They're wannabes, they're hard there.”

The man likes the foot patrols. “I love it. The more they do it, the more these cats will go to other areas.”