This morning, December 15th, 2014 was a beautiful day in Victoria.\u00a0 At about 8:20 am my wife and I drove to Elk Lake Regional Park via Highway 17.\u00a0\u00a0 As we joined the highway we saw Mount Baker shining in the morning sun.\u00a0\u00a0 A beautiful and inspiring sight.\u00a0\u00a0 That view reminded me of another morning, about 47 years ago and that is why I am writing this article.<\/p>\n
It was about 4:30 am in the summer of 1967.\u00a0\u00a0 I was one of 6 police officers of\u00a0“B” Platoon,\u00a0working the Midnight shift in the Saanich Municipal Police Department.\u00a0\u00a0 One officer was of course\u00a0on duty in the office.\u00a0 That left our Sergeant John Post (later Inspector and a founding instructor at what was to become the Justice Institute of BC), and 4 constables to patrol Saanich.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Two were assigned the ‘East Car’ and myself and another officer were assigned the ‘West Car’ (Car Five Two this shift).\u00a0\u00a0 It was a beautiful summer night with very little happening.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After about 1:00 am the community was asleep.\u00a0\u00a0 There were very few calls, very\u00a0few cars on the roads.\u00a0\u00a0 We had done our appointed rounds which involved checking the fronts and backs of every commercial building in our zone.\u00a0 We had been in to the office for coffee, we had\u00a0eaten our lunch.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We had gone back out and begun a second round of our area.\u00a0\u00a0 Typical part of the police life: hours of boredom!\u00a0 The East Car had also finished their lunch.\u00a0 The sky was just beginning to lighten up.<\/p>\n
At 4:25 am there was a call on our radio from Sergeant Post.\u00a0 “Five Two and Five Six, meet me at the corner of Claremont and\u00a0Wesley\u00a0 drive.\u00a0\u00a0 It is NOT an emergency, but get here as soon as you can”\u00a0\u00a0 We had no idea what the Sergeant wanted.\u00a0\u00a0 It was very unusual to call both patrol units to one place.\u00a0\u00a0 I was just driving through the back of the Royal Oak Shopping Centre so we covered the distance in about 6 minutes.\u00a0\u00a0 Car Five Six was further, down in the Shelbourne Plaza area, and took about 12 minutes to arrive.<\/p>\n
And arrive we did!\u00a0 There on the crest of that hill, the sun was just rising over Mount Baker and the mountains of Washington State.\u00a0\u00a0 It was an amazing and beautiful sight, one often repeated since, but never in such circumstances.\u00a0\u00a0 The Sgt. apologized for ‘bringing’ up to see this, but he said we had to see it.\u00a0\u00a0 He was right!\u00a0 \u00a0For about 10 minutes, 5 uniformed police officers stood, with our three marked cars lined up behind us watching that sunrise.\u00a0\u00a0 Then we all thanked our Sgt. for having called us, we got back into our cars and went back to work on that Dawn Patrol.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At about 6:00 the city woke up.\u00a0 We were dispatched to assist Firefighters on an ambulance call, quickly followed by a motor vehicle accident.\u00a0\u00a0 The magic of the morning was broken, but never forgotten.<\/p>\n
We all learned a lot that morning.\u00a0 We learned to take in the beauty of the world and the community we worked in.\u00a0\u00a0 We also learned that it is okay to see that beauty.\u00a0\u00a0We learned that it is okay for ‘tough guys’ wearing a badge and a uniform, carrying a gun, to share a positive emotion. \u00a0That a good supervisor can show his respect for beauty and for the world around him.\u00a0\u00a0 We learned that in doing so he\/she can increase the respect of his team.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I know we all went back to work uplifted and we realized what an amazing Sergeant we had.<\/p>\n
John Post was an amazing man and leader, one of\u00a0half a dozen\u00a0such leaders I had the privilege of working for (and with) in Saanich.\u00a0\u00a0 John was a man of integrity and strong convictions.\u00a0\u00a0 A hero in my eyes and of my fellow officers that morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This morning, December 15th, 2014 was a beautiful day in Victoria.\u00a0 At about 8:20 am my wife and I drove to Elk Lake Regional Park via Highway 17.\u00a0\u00a0 As we joined the highway we saw Mount Baker shining in the morning sun.\u00a0\u00a0 A beautiful and inspiring sight.\u00a0\u00a0 That view reminded \u2026<\/p>\n