RICHARD ALLEN SCOTT - Through the Years

RICHARD ALLEN SCOTT
THROUGH THE YEARS
flew our way too. After a bottle landed very close to Bill he jumped back in the car. A close call.
At another out-of-control event, a dance in a community hall, I was first to arrive on the scene as
everyone else was tied up on calls, and my car was immediately surrounded by a large group
who started rocking it trying to turn it over. This was the one and only time I feared for my
safety and pressed the ‘panic button’ – a red button on our radios that signaled the
communications centre of an immediate emergency. Glad I had been good to my Constables,
as many of them showed up almost immediately to provide backup. Out-of-control house
parties, bush parties, bar fights…you name it, we had it. It got so rough that I, as a ‘road
supervisor’, brought out the shotgun that only the supervisor’s vehicle was equipped with, on
numerous occasions and had it ready at many calls. It was a bad crowd in Surrey, and getting
worse.
My annual performance appraisal this year recommended me for full-time University training,
and for the “High-Potential-Development” program (long-since discontinued). This program was
designed to recognize the high level of performance of members, their willingness to undertake
any type of duty (and posting), and were desirous of a Commission. That was me, and I stayed
in that program for as long as it existed.
I started taking University correspondence courses in Criminology. Very difficult (for me) in that
I was working shifts, had the three kids, and had to submit numerous essays on numerous
topics…all handwritten of course. I did about 3 of those courses over the next year.
Regardless of the extra-curricular school work I had burdened myself with, we always did a lot
with the children, taking them hither and yon. There was so much to see and do in that part of
the country, so after I’d cut the grass and done my ‘chores’ on my days off (garden, wash and
wax the cars, etc.), we were gone…somewhere…anywhere…hikes in the woods, lakes, parks,
the ocean, you name it, and we’d usually splurge on McDonald’s or White Spot for supper on
the way home.
Tim, Christopher, and Robyne
On a road trip - 1979
Christopher, Tim and Robyne
Abbotsford – Christmas - 1979
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