Rock Band Sends Anti-Drug Message : Ohio Cops Play ‘Hot Pursuit’ to Teen-agers’ Rave Reviews

They’re just four street cops and a real estate agent until they take their guitars, keyboard and drums before a high school audience. Then they become “Hot Pursuit,” a rock band with a message:

Stay away from drugs.

In just over a year, they have taken that message to high school auditoriums and gymnasiums from here to New Jersey. They have cut a record album, appeared on national television, performed at a White House anti-drug conference and have been invited to China.

The band leans heavily on music from the early days of rock. The 1955 hit “Jail House Rock” is their theme song and they quickly follow with such numbers as “Mony Mony” from 1968, “Twist and Shout” and “Wipeout.”

The five musicians get their kicks watching their young audiences.

“They dance in the aisles and they come on stage to sing with us,” says Columbus patrolman Keith Ankrom, the drummer.

Lt. Karl Tresselt, who doubles as promoter and manager of the band, says, “When you hear the enthusiasm of the kids and how they get into the music, it’s all worthwhile.”

Patrolman Richard Gillilan, bass guitarist and vocalist, said: “One thing we want to do is show them that cops are people who have a job to do and then they go home to their families and bowling leagues like other people.”

At first it was just a pickup band organized by Columbus patrol officers. Then about a year ago, one dropped out and they brought in Michael Finks, a real estate agent with a radio-TV background. He plays the keyboard and is a backup vocalist.

Other members of the band are vocalist Randy Moon and lead guitarist Michael Wilson. Pat Barr is the sound engineer.

“We started as a weekend fun way to get away from the stress of street duty,” Tresselt says. “We just played private parties at first.”

Then Police Chief Dwight Joseph happened to hear the band play one night.

“He said he wanted to see all of us in his office the first thing Monday and we thought we were in trouble,” Tresselt says. “Then he told us the department could use us to go into schools with the anti-drug message.”

From that, the band’s reputation has grown. It played at a regional drug conference in Cincinnati last fall and then got an invitation to perform at the White House Conference for a Drug-Free America in February. En route home they played at three schools outside Newark, N.J. They plan a four-county swing to schools in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in May and have been invited back to New Jersey.

They also have invitations to play at a July 4 party for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and at a national Boy Scout conference in Boston on July 16.

“We’ve got the hotel reservations and are trying to get someone to underwrite the plane tickets,” Tresselt says.

The band has played a regular schedule of area schools twice a week since last Nov. 1. This year, they began making one-day swings to other parts of Ohio.

Gillilan says a Hollywood entertainment group has approached them about making a two-hour pilot movie for television.

“Just on the sale of the album alone we’ve raised $12,000 for the Children’s Hospital Guidance Center Drug and Alcohol Program,” Gillilan says.

Stacks of mail on Tresselt’s desk testify to the reaction from students across the state.

“After one performance a kid wrote us that he had never thought about policemen having families,” says Ankrom, percussionist for the band. “He thought we just stayed in uniform and rode in patrol cars 24 hours a day.”

The band has no budget to speak of, and money is a problem. They still play for private parties on weekends but most of the money earned goes to pay for equipment that Tresselt says is mostly owned by a bank.

A department store underwrote the trips to Cincinnati and Washington. A local automobile dealer has leased the city a band equipment truck for $1 a year, and the city rented some equipment, such as strobe lights and smoke machines that allow them to play in larger auditoriums.

“We’ve got all kinds of ideas for the band and no money,” Gillilan says.