RICHARD ALLEN SCOTT - Through the Years

RICHARD ALLEN SCOTT
THROUGH THE YEARS
This is the same view as the photo on
the previous page, taken in December.
Single members were expected to work
Christmas and take New Years off. Our
shifts were 9 hours in length, 6 days a
week. Did a week of dayshift, a week of
afternoons, and a week of midnights.
Being in ‘learning mode’ and still without
a car, I spent most of my waking hours
downstairs in the office and driving
around with the on-shift members, both
Detachment and Freeway Patrol, who
had their office beside my apartment
upstairs. With the Freeway members, I
was introduced to ‘speed’…on a number of occasions burying the speedometer needle at 140
miles per hour…in an unmarked police car…what a thrill that was. And stopping a very large
pack of bikers Hell’s Angels on their annual ‘ride’. Now they were intimidating, but the fellows I
was with took absolutely no guff and were (mostly) professional, accidentally kicking over just a
few of the bikes, writing a copious number of tickets, arresting those with outstanding warrants,
and generally harassing them all. With the speed limit of 70mph on that highway, accidents
were deadly. I went out with the Sergeant-in-charge one night to a fatal on a bridge over the
Vedder Canal – where we proceeded to pick up chunks of flesh that had been torn off a
catapulted driver (seatbelts weren’t mandatory) and throwing them into the canal. The streak of
bodily fluid along the roadway from the driver was a long one. Accidents in those days didn’t
close roads for days as they do now. Traffic was diverted around accident scenes,
measurements and photos were taken, causing as little disruption as possible to normal traffic
flows. If a serious accident happened at night, additional photos and measurements were
obtained the following day. I still don’t understand why all the closures these days.
I didn’t cook (at least I wasn’t interested in it), so ate at a
motel restaurant across the street from the office. They
charged a flat rate of $35 a month. Very nice people.
Here I am, on duty, enjoying Christmas Dinner with
them.
Christmas Dinner – Dec 25, 1967
Our Detachment policed an area with a population of
about 7,000. The more populous neighbor, Matsqui,
merged with Abbotsford in the early 1990’s, and now
has a combined population around 140,000. Hardly
recognize the place.
In my first week there I took a phone call in the office at
lunch time (myself and the Sergeant in charge were the
only ones in the office) from a very distraught woman
saying her husband had just shot himself. I got the
address, and not yet knowing the area too well, shot
over there, only to discover that it was about one block over our boundary and into another
police force’s jurisdiction (Matsqui Police) (thank goodness). When we opened the front door
June 2017
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