Detroit rounds up Angel's Night volunteers

Volunteers fanned out across Detroit Saturday, recruiting more citizens to help keep order on Halloween and the two nights before the holiday.

Mayor Kenneth Cockrel joined the effort, knocking on doors, the Detroit Free Press reported. The city tries to put at least 60,000 volunteers on patrol for what used to be known as Devil's Night and now, at least at City Hall, is called Angel's Night.

Detroit teenagers celebrated Devil's Night, known in some regions as Mischief Night, for many decades with an orgy of petty vandalism. Eggs were thrown at houses, toilet paper strung on bushes and shaving cream used on car windows.

In the 1970s, the night took a darker turn with arson fires that sometimes numbered in the hundreds. Property values were dropping rapidly and some home and business owners allegedly used the night as cover for insurance fires.

The city began the Angel's Night patrols in the 1990s.

Saturday's recruitment effort was the second this year for Angel's Night volunteers.