RICHARD ALLEN SCOTT - Through the Years

RICHARD ALLEN SCOTT
THROUGH THE YEARS
1978
In April of this year, the Officer
In Charge of Langley
Detachment, presented me with
this Certificate at a formal
presentation in the Langley
Municipal Council Chambers.
Nice.
In August of this year I
published a catalogue
describing the 22 implemented
Crime Prevention and
Community Relations programs
and the 10 proposed programs
that I had developed during my
time in Langley. All were a
raging success.
Before leaving Langley, I had established close relations with McDonalds for their sponsorship
of various ‘things’, and was in final negotiations with General Motors to build and outfit a traffic
Safety Village in Langley. That concept died when I left, unfortunately.
Burnaby Detachment
With 11½ years of service, a bit more than the average for a promotion to Corporal, and a bit of
anxiety over my future, I was fortunate and did get that promotion, which necessitated a transfer
to Burnaby Detachment, about an hour’s drive west of Abbotsford, where I reported for duty with
my new Corporal stripes on my uniform on September 1 st It once again entailed shift work.
Tough to get used to again, and it was especially tough staying awake on the freeway on the
way home after midnight shifts.
The little old English ‘clunker’ that I had purchased for the commute to Langley had to go. It
was more than unsafe for a major hike into Burnaby…I could see the road pass by through the
floorboards, and on a rainy day got wet feet. And it had to be nursed continually. What a wreck
it was. Thank goodness there was no mandatory vehicle
inspections back then. Definitely wouldn’t have passed.
Ended up selling it to a local villain ‘known to the police’
whose cheque bounced and I had to hassle him for months to
get my $200. Lesson learned. I found a second-hand
Volkswagen Rabbit, looked something like this, except grey
and red, that served the purpose. I think it was an insurance
write-off, as it never did run properly and had a pretty nice
new paint job when I got it.
At that time, Burnaby was pretty much a ‘bedroom community’ of Vancouver. I found it quite
boring actually, and as a Corporal supervisor I simply had to provide backup to other members
as they attended calls, or take ‘easy’ calls. There was a lot of ambulance and fire-truck chasing.
June 2017
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