Inside This Edition Volume 13 Number 4 April 2001 Commentary 5 Those who serve in lonely places Blue Line Magazine 12A-4981 Hwy 7 East Suite 254 Correspondence 6 Markham, ON L3R 1N1 Phn: 905 640-3048 Fax: 905 640-7547 Bicycle patrols hit the street 9 e-mail: [email protected] Establishing a bike unit means - Publisher - Morley S. Lymburner real community involvement e-mail: [email protected] One-on-one with the RNC’s top cop 12 - General Manager - Mary Lymburner, M.Ed. e-mail: [email protected] How does shift work affect cops? 14 Canadian professor voices - Editor-In-Chief - Blair McQuillan serious concerns e-mail: [email protected] Vitality 17 - News Editor - Les Linder Healthy cops save money, study says e-mail: [email protected] Technology 18 - Advertising - Intelligent digital tailoring Mary Lymburner On the cover of the April issue we find Rhonda Shuker Ontario Provincial Police Cst. Troy Carlson Bob Murray Co-operating for cost effectiveness 20 (left) and Sgt. Don Denver enjoying spring Agencies unite to develop - Pre-press Production - weather. Del Wall purchasing network Carlson, and the bike patrol unit of the OPP’s Kenora Detachment are profiled by - Contributing Editors - Law enforcement in the north 22 Dave Brown on page 9 of this edition. Communication Skills Terry Barker One officer detachments Richard Deering, a former member of the Police Leadership Robert Lunney OPP, recently left the provincial police to be- Tactical Firearms Dave Brown come the chief of the Royal Newfoundland Technology Tom Rataj Mounties pressured to act alone 24 Constabulary. Deering’s philosophies on po- Case Law Gino Arcaro lice leadership can be found on page 12. Blue Line Magazine is published monthly, September to June, Front wheel drive police cruisers 26 In an exclusive interview with Blue Line by Blue Line Magazine Incorporated with a mailing address of: Magazine, Professor Ralph Mistlberger talks 12A - 4981 Hwy. 7 East, Ste. 254, about shift work and its adverse affects on po- Markham, Ontario, L3R 1N1. RESPONSE 2001 28 Individual magazines are $3.50 each. Subscriptions are lice officers. This story, filed by Les Linder, is $25.00 per year or $40.00 for 2 years. (Overseas - $50.00 on page 14. Examining police pursuits 36 U.S.) The laws of Canada must be enforced no © 2001 - All articles are protected by copyright. No part of this Part 1 publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by matter where the location. In this issue, Blair any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording or by any information storage or retrieval system McQuillan profiles three RCMP officers who without permission from the publisher. Internet activity is Law enforcement and the fifth estate 40 are working in one officer detachments. To learn monitored and use or reposting of material on the Internet The thin line between the police and media more about policing the small communities of is restricted. All material submitted for publication becomes the property Nunavut, turn to page 22. of Blue Line Magazine unless other arrangements have been Response 2001, Blue Line Magazine’s An- made with the publisher. The Last Noose 42 The authors, advisors and Publisher accept no liability Saskatchewan nual Law Enforcement Trade Show and Exhibi- whatsoever for any injuries to persons or property resulting from tion, will be held on April 24 and 25. For a the application or adoption of any of the procedures, tactics or complete list of exhibitors and detailed confer- considerations presented in this magazine. Readers are cautioned External body armour carriers 44 and advised that articles presented herein are edited and supplied ence information, turn to page 28. for your personal awareness and should not be used for further Readers speak out on Blue Line Forum Law enforcement officials have had to deal action until appropriate advice and guidance is received from a supervisor, Crown Attorney or other person in authority. with police pursuits since the first car rolled Established in 1988, Blue Line Magazine is an independent Aging ballistic armour integrity 46 off the assembly line. In the first of a two part publication designed to inform, entertain, educate and upgrade the skills of those involved in the law enforcement profession. It Are we ready to address this series on the topic, Keith A. Gehrand exam- has no direct control from a law enforcement agency and its penetrating issue? ines the definition of a pursuit, attitudes to- opinions and articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any government, police, or law enforcement agency. Blue Line wards them and the liabilities involved. The police and media are both tasked with Magazine is a private venture and as such is not funded Blue Line Reading Library 48 through any level of government agency, union or uncovering the truth and finding the facts. How- association. Printed in Canada by Garson Graphic Services Inc. ever, these two professions often clash on a - Affiliations- Product News 50 number of issues. In the final submission of his International Association of Law Enforcement Planners three part series, John Muldoon attempts to Canadian Advertising Rates & Data International Police Association Blue Line Classified 52 find some common ground between them. To The Police Leadership Forum learn more, turn to page 40. The Canadian Press Newswire List of Advertisers 54 The topic of external body armour carriers Periodical Publishers Exchange versus concealed armour has been the source of ISSN #0847 8538 heated debate on the Blue Line Forum during Canada Post - Canadian Publications Mail Back of the Book 55 the past several months. On page 44, we bring Product Sales Agreement No. 176796 The Youth Criminal Justice Act the debate to print and let readers have their say. April 2001 3 Blue Line Magazine Those who serve in lonely places by Robert Lunney I can’t claim to be a dyed-in-the-wool Canada deserve our admiration and our heart felt northerner, but I volunteered for northern serv- thanks. Their’s is a hard life, and though death Retired chief Robert Lunney was asked ice with the RCMP and spent a few years at and injury thankfully does not come often, when to share some thoughts about policing in Whitehorse in the Yukon. it does there is sorrow and regret that they were Canada’s more remote areas in response to Later, as a personnel officer working from asked to accept so much risk for such relatively this month’s feature on single officer detach- “A” Division in Ottawa, my responsibilities little reward or recognition. ments. included the eastern arctic detachments as well There are many heroes to be found in the Lunney’s comments were reflections as northern Ontario. I had the opportunity to ranks of police officers across Canada. The of- made after the death of RCMP Cst. Jurgen visit police posts from Frobisher Bay to ficers who serve in the lonely places rank among Seewald. Coppermine, including the detachments on them. Hudson’s Bay. Northern service was the halcyon days of my police career. Whitehorse was a hard drink- ing town and while we experienced more seri- ous crime than you might think for a town of 6,000, we were preoccupied with drunkenness and its effects in the community. It was normal to work the late shift alone with no back up. I still have a vivid recollection of entering a bar to confront a violent drunk much bigger than I swinging a broken chair while the patrons cow- ered in the corner. Although there were firearms in almost every house and vehicle in the territory there was an unwritten rule that the police didn’t carry sidearms and the population didn’t take up arms against us. The north gave me my edu- cation as a police officer. Later, when I had the opportunity to visit detachments on the “other side”, I met more RCMP officers and their wives stationed at isolated one-officer detachments or in two’s or three’s. They made me very proud to be a member of the RCMP. By the time I became involved with mu- nicipal policing the situation on the streets of big city Canada was much different. Police were encountering more guns, drugs and violence than we had ever faced before. Of necessity we got smarter on officer safety, improved our defen- sive weaponry and adopted concealable body armour. I accommodated to patrol systems that offered rapid response of back up units, and encouraged officers to practice defensive tac- tics and restraint in approaching potentially dangerous situations. I like to think that as a result of the changes we adopted, lives were saved. As urban society became more sophisti- cated, the gulf in working conditions between city policing and policing in the remote areas of Canada grew wider. I at one time listened to ur- ban police officers complain about a delay in back up, and contrast that with the lot of the rural detachment officer patrolling alone, polic- ing settlements where substance abuse was a way of life and violence never far from any encounter. Different expectations; different people. I doubt if many of the RCMP, QPF or OPP officers serving in the isolated posts would care to change places with their urban counterparts. There are many factors leading to the choices we make in our work and personal lives. But the men and women serving in the far reaches of April 2001 5 Blue Line Magazine Is anyone aware of any independent stud- RCMP crime statistics was cleared up several meant to mean street crime or gang crime only. ies, statistics, etc.