Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 8, 1976, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press for people 8, 1976 pages 17 30 Constable in Cruiser car 1105 helps keep Public Safe by feed Edge free press staff writer he s a new Breed of cop. Put him on to and Call him the Blue Knight the new Centurion or whatever. But Don t Call him pig. His life is Pulice work. He lays that life on the line every time he straps on his and Wesson Model 10 .38 special Steps out on his beat or slides into his Cruiser Cai. He knows better than anyone else that he s living in a new kind of society. He knows he is no longer As respected by some elements of that society or As feared by some others As he used to be. His work is sometimes dangerous most often tedious routine. Cruising the streets of the City on an eight hour shift wit i a half hour lunch break five Days a week he can die from a Bullet or lie can die from boredom. But if he lets himself gel too bored if he lets this make him Sloppy maybe just once in a Given situation he is More Apt to die from the radio in Cruiser car 1105 cuts in with a blurred burst or Static. Operator dispatcher Mary s o b k o w police communications Centre comes of Cool. "xjfu5 to 1105." Constable John qua senior member of that night s two Man 1105 team picks up the Mike and jabs tile transmit Button. "1105 "1105 go to number withheld Vaughan number withheld Vaughan re Man threatening suicide. Time 21.32." the revolving red roof Flasher blinks on. Const Terry Lamb wheels the Black Plymouth its White front door panels bearing the civic Crest and City of Winnipeg police into a tight a turn. Const. Qua again depresses the transmit Button. "1105. Do you have a suite number suite John qua is 29 years old. After finishing High school he worked for about a year and a half in a steel Mill before joining the Winnipeg Force. Why i guess i always had a pretty High idea of what police work is All now a Veteran of almost nine years he has spent the last live on cars. He is tall and husky with an easy manner a Good sense of humor and an almost instinctive professional caution born of experience. As the car pulls up to the Vaughan Street address of the threatened suicide he again transmits to police communications. "1105. the operator dispatcher responds with his time of arrival. "21.44." suite three is Down a Dingy a shaped flight of stairs to the basement. Const. Qua motions his pier incr to the Wall on the far Side of the door and takes up his own position by the Wall. He reaches Over with his Arm to Knock on the door. There is always the Chance a very Small Chance maybe but it s always there that a threatened suicide with a gun will decide that he s not going to go out Lone some. After a few moments the door is opened by a Man who looks 35 or so. He also looks As though he s been on pills or booze or both for quite a while. Const. Qua eases himself in through the door. He says quietly. What s the tonight feeling a Little Karen qua is speaking. She and John have been married for four years and Nave a three year old son Michael John. Before her marriage she was a Teller and worked in the accounting depart ment of n Winnipeg Bank for about six years. X when John and i first got she said i did a lot of worrying. I still do but you sort of get used to it. It s his Job. And if you worry continually you re going to grow old before your time. The worst is when you hear Over the radio that there s been some shooting or a policeman has been injured in a car Chase and you Don t know who was involved. Nights like that you Don t go to sleep. You wait up. You wait for the front door to open and your Man to Call out that he s Home. Nights like that Yon do a lot of Reading in three year old Mike qua is his dad s biggest Booster. When he sees a police car he practically goes out of his he has a pair of jeans he Calls his police pants and his Mother can hardly get them off a social life can be difficult for a policeman and his wife. When we re at a party of non police said Karen almost invariably someone who got a traffic ticket wants to know Why the police out catching the real criminals and shift work creates problems. Our two Best friends Are involved in shift work just like John and me. We get to spend an evening out with them about twice a year. A lot of people have the idea that police Are cynical that they develop a sort of callous hardness. What they re doing because they see so much is trying to cover up the Way they really feel. I think either you do this you learn to live with it or sooner or later you crack up. Of know when there has been an Accident involving a child or an investigation into a Case of child abuse. John does t have to Tell the threatened suicide in the basement suite on Vaugh an Street has a Beer in his hand and a few cases of Emp ties scattered around the room. Nobody cares. Nobody gives a Damn. Sly wife left me six weeks ago with the three const qua Speaks quietly As he moves around die Small poorly furnished suite checking Pill bottles poking his flashlight into cupboards where there May be an even quicker Way for a threatened suicide to make Good his threat. We care. We re Here Aren t we would we be Here if we did t the Man thrusts his face into both shoulders Start to shake. Have you got a priest or a minister you d like us to the Man is hiding the Quick hot tears with his fingers. Nobody gives a look. We Don t want you Here smoking falling asleep maybe setting fire to the place. Go ahead. Finish your Beer. Then come along with us to talk to somebody at the the mail wipes a wet hand across his eyes. Yon won t take me to jail you won t lock me const. Qua slowly shakes his head. Well just take you to someone who in the Back seat of car 1105, he panics briefly and tries to lever open the door but it won t open from the inside. You re trying to trick me. You re taking me to look where we re says const. Qua. This in t the Way to jail. It s the Way to general five minutes later the Man is speaking with a Psychia Trist. Someone who cares and what is perhaps even More important understands. What do you do on an eight hour shift in just one car 1105 in just one night of cruising Winnipeg City streets you possibly save a Man s life because every threatened suicide is a potential suicide. You Flash your lights at a Motorist to let him know that he has neglected to turn on his headlights. You answer a strange Man in a suite Call and find a drinking woman who s had a fight with her boy Friend still sitting drinking in the Kitchen and who decides to embrace one of fhe investigating officers. She does. And const. Lamb s face turns a beet red As he gently but firmly Breaks away from her you pull up alongside two teen agers walking Down the Side of the Road and you Tell them to stick to the sidewalk no matter that they might get Snow Down the tops of their boots. You rather be it just takes one careless or impaired Driver to make just one swerve and those kids Are constables de Hamilton and John qua in patrol car you keep an Eye open for a flute Ford with two men in it because they held up a supermarket in a sector other than yours and there s an All cars Alert on them. You respond to a break in Call in your sector and find a Drunken Man who rang the Back Doorbell of a House giving the owners plenty of time to dial 911, then drove his fist through the door Glass. He. Runs a pretty fair Chance of bleeding to death before you get him to general Hospital if you re a Veteran like John qua you always follow established police procedures whatever the situation and with Luck you Don t get shot. .1 and finally you Check off the air with operator by Gerry Cairns dispatcher Mary Sobkow Roll your car into the police garage and sit Down to write your reports. Go to bed in Winnipeg tonight with a Cerf Ain sense of Security. A girl named Mary is sitting at a Bank of numbered lights each one representing a Cruiser car on patrol in front of a microphone in the Winnipeg police communications Centre. Those numbered lights stand for round the clock Public safety. One of them is const. John qua and his partner i Cruiser car 1105. Bigfoot baby doubted. The Dalles Ore. A an expert on the North West s legendary Bigfoot monster says a new York lawyer who paid for a baby Bigfoot probably has an outlandish Lily expensive Chim Panzee. Michael Miller of new York City bought the animal from a circus and has turned it Over to a medical Laboratory in Philadelphia a. For tests. Peter Byrne of the Bigfoot information Centre Here however said he has seen two photographs of the Crea Ture and says it looks like a Chimpanzee with a domed head. He said the animal lacks the characteristics ascribed to a Bigfoot also known As the Sasquatch. He said it has the opposed thumb characteristic of apes and does not have a foot that matches the shape or style of footprints reported around the United Stales Northwest and Southern British Colum Bia for More than a Century. He said the pictures were taken by a Friend of his in Philadelphia at his request several Days ago. I understand he bought the thing from a circus in South Carolina because he had pity on Byrne said. He said the pictures have convinced him the creature is not a Bigfoot. Coming events Isobel Jamison president of the Manitoba business and professional women s clubs will speak to the Winnipeg Xana business and professional women s club at 8 . Jan. 12 at 54 West Gate or. Harry Prosen thief of psychiatry i n the health sciences Centre will address the jewish historical society at . Jan. 13 in the planetarium auditorium 190 Rupert Street. Mary Sobkow operator and dispatcher the South and far West Winnipeg Christian women s clubs will present a guest night at 7 . Jan. 24 in the hotel fort Garry. Guests will be a Thuv Owens of the health and sports spa in Excelsior Minnesota and Winnipeg singers John and Ruth Enns. Birchmont furniture and designers save 20 o to biggest clearance Sale in our history free delivery included budget terms free layaway charge or master charge Birchmont furniture division of Birchmont furniture Ltd. 51 Albeert St. Phone 942-0781 open daily Fri. 9-9 sat. 9-5 Richardson blog ;