12 - Terrace Review — Wednesday, January 14, 1987

A night

TERRACE — After it was
all over, everyone said it
had been a quiet night for
a Saturday.

by Michael Kelly

I] was admitted into the
Terrace RCMP station in
the basement of the
municipal building
through the kind of door
that can only be opened
from one side. Although
I’d come there on a
legitimate and approved
assignment, once inside
my initial reaction was the
old you’ve-doné-wrong-.
and-now-you ’re-going-to-
pay-for-it feeling. When I
was growing up there was
no such thing as police-
community relations, and
the sight of uniforms
could) mean. only one
thing: trouble.

The RCMP’s _ Ride-
Along program, designed
to allow legal students and
journalists a close-up view
of law enforcement, is go-
ing to give mea brief first-
hand glimpse tonight at
policing in the District of
Terrace.

During the course of the
evening that followed I
was to discover that com-
munity relations are not
the only aspect of policing
that have improved in re-
cent years.

My guide for the even-
ing is Cst. Terry
Pakenham, a 13-year
veteran of the force. We

begin with a tour of the

premises,

The layout of the sta-
tion is crowded, and it has
a haphazard appearance.
Pakenham confirms that
the detachment will be re-
lieved to occupy the new
headquarters presently
under construction next
door. I am shown a mus-
ter room, a small assembly
area with tables, chairs,
coffee paraphernalia, and
one wall filled with shelves
housing a television, a

VCR and a library of -

video cassettes. Pakenham
explains that the visual
equipment is not/an enter-
tainment center, but a
means of keeping mem-
bers up to date on the con-
tinual barrage of par-
liamentary acts and
amendments and proce-
dural changes that affect
law enforcement.

An adjacent room - is
packed floor-to-ceiling
and wall-to-wall with what
appear to be enough files
to keep a platoon of ar-
chivists occupied well into
the next century.

In the opposite wing of
the basement a room full
cof desks and typewriters
discloses the place where
the files are born. I begin
to gain an appreciation of

“how ‘much time a police
_ officer spends writing on,
__ filling out, reading, filing,
. signing: and sometimes
cursing at pieces of paper.

ith the

A few steps up toward

the back of the complex
are the jail cells, bare,
blank, and heartless.
Outside, I’m introduced
to a standard-issue police
car which Pakenham had
earlier described as a
“(minor chamber of hor-
rors’’. In the passenger’s
seat intruding against my
left knee a black tube rises
obliquely from the floor,
ending in the trigger-guard
of a peculiar-looking

' shotgun. A plastic pocket

behind my, right shoulder
houses a heavy black night
stick, The front and rear
seats. are separated by a
plexiglass screen per-

- forated -with small holes.

_ Pakenham. says he

“begins his shift by survey-

The dashboard and the

area beneath it are
embellished with toggle

switches and a battery of.

radio equipment.

It is RCMP policy,
Pakenham says, to use
force only as a method of

last resort. In his 13 years -

as a policeman he has

never used the shotgun.
The carrying of night-

sticks is at the individual

member’s discretion; they ©

are not used on foot
patrols in Terrace.
As we begin cruising the

-downtown streets in an

apparently random man-
ner, I attempt to look at
Terrace from peace-
keeping point of view.
What do you look for?

2 ee

Jerry Hannon

and public safety In Terrace.

is one of the Terrace detachment
telecom personnel field emergency telephon
records and motor vehicle licensing on reques

ing the downtown core of
the city and then gradually
circling outward through
the residential and in-
dustrial regions. He takes
notice of anything out of
the ordinary — large
groups of people, cars
parked in unusual places,
out-of-province license
plates, lights that are on
that should be out, lights
that are out that should be
on.

By the Kenney St. rail-

road crossing Pakenham
executes a U-turn, flips on
the red and blue rotating

beacons, and pulls over a_

van with a burned-out
headlight. After a brief
coded radio transmission
he gets out and walks up
to the driver’s side of the
van. His manner is light
and unassuming with an
underlay of confidence
and unobtrusive author-
ity.

Back in the car Paken-
ham makes another in-
decipherable remark into
the radio and begins to
write out a warning ticket.
Before. he is finished a
voice’ replies. over the
radio, Without realizing it
I’ve just seen the Police
Information Retrieval
System (PIRS) in action.

When it’s over Paken-

ham explains that the first
radio request, got him a
cross-match, between the
van’s license plates and
the registered owner; the
second checked the
driver’s record for out-
standing warrants,

criminal offenses and

other matters of interest:
‘He’s got a record,”’
Pakenham says, “‘but
there’s nothing on it since
1964. He’s been a ‘good
boy for a long time, so
we're not too interested in

him.”? With the PIRS, he.

adds, response time to
routine information _ re-
quests is less than two
minutes,

“Flying the flag’ is a
phrase that Pakenham
uses a number of times
during the evening. It en-
compasses the idea of
making the public. aware
of the RCMP presence in
a way that is positive and
protective rather than in-

- timidating; it can take the

form of anything from
foot patrols through
drinking establishments
and pool halls to striking
up conversations with
pedestrians .on Terrace
streets. ;

'-“Pakeriliam considers -

the procedure of advising
motorists about mechani-
cal defects to be one more
opportunity for contact
between police and public,.
a chance to enhance the

oan

Jali cells in the Terrace RCMP station are not designed for

cheer or comfort.

relationship between the
people who enforce the
law and the people who
are protected by it.

‘YOUTH
The plate glass door of

a shop in the 4600 block -

Lakelse Ave.. has been

shattered, and this time (a

rare occurance) they have
a witness, a taxi driver
who saw a teenaged girl
kick the. door jin. . Her,

radio, and _ several
members begin searching
the area on foot.

I accompany Paken-
ham into a pool hall
around the corner, where

‘eden

telecom operators wh ; f focal | ns.
e calls and complaints, keep track of police vehicle locations, check criminal
t, and perform numerous other functions essential to effective law enforcement

o sit at the nérve centre of local police

operations. The

he discovers no less than
six girls who fit the decrip-

tion down to the color of

' description is circulated by ~

the clothes they’re wear-
ing. He returns to street
and, with a harid-held
radio set, awaits further
developments.

They’re not long in

coming; the girl has been.

caught in a laneway
behind the block of shops.

Back in the cat, we drive -

past the police vehicle in

‘which the gifl is being.de- .

tained; she makes an
obscene gesture at us.

The arresting officer
later attributes the suc-
cesful
anonymous black RCMP-
issue raincoat.
didn’t know who I was,
and she walked right up to
me,” he. laughs. The ad-
ministrative man on duty
at the headquarters desk,
however, is more concern-
ed about getting an- ac-
curate statement from the
witness.

His concern reflects an
ongoing problem. the
police face in obtaining
court convictions.

‘Witnesses who agree to

testify in court become
discouraged by a variety
of obstacles originating in
the legal system. Court
dates do not specify the
time of day an individual
case is heard, and the
witness is required to take
up to a full day off work
or other activities in order

-to appear; the inconven-

ience is frequently com-
pounded by adjournments
and other types of
rescheduling, Recall of the
act witnessed is often

obscured: by the length of -

time between the the oc-
curence of the crime. and
the date it comes before
the court. People who
have been through the
legal mill once, Pakenham
says, are often reluctant to
come forward a second
time. Witnesses fail to give

information, crimes g0 .

unreported, and the arrest
and conviction rates suf-
fer.

At the police station the
girl and a companion are
continued on page 17

catch to his

‘She |