STORY BEHIND POLICE ACT TACT
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During this past week I have been at the
Justice Institute of British Columbia (the Academy) on a supervisors course.
There I have been in class with officers from several other municipalities.
Including Denny Crosato from New Westminster. As policemen and women everywhere
do, we were on a break and exchanging war stories. Denny then related the
tale of how he and another officer, Scotty Stewart received a reprimand
over a fart.
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We found it amazing to believe, but he
related the following story. Scotty Stewart was responding to a call one
evening at about 2 am, and Denny dropped by to cover. They stopped their
cars and got out and stood talking on the street for a few minutes to determine
how they were going to deal with the call.
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It seems that Scotty had a wee bit of
gas trouble that evening, and doing the natural thing, let out the pent
up pressure. Denny remarked that it was disgusting. A lady walking past,
apparently heard the exchange of ideas between the two and was deeply offended.
She said nothing to the two, and in fact they did not even see her walking
by. Apparently she was deeply offended and wrote a letter to the Chief
of Police complaining. Unfortunately, all written complaints against police
members must be investigated.
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A few days later, the complaint made its
way down the chain of command and Denny and Scotty were told to report
to the Staff Sergeants office to deal with the complaint against them.
Scotty was given a verbal reprimand for his actions in this incident. Denny
was given a verbal reprimand for, I swear this is what he told me, being
the senior man at the scene and not stopping Scotty.
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To this day Denny says he’s trying to
figure out how he could have stopped it from happening. Just when I thought
I had seen and heard it all, someone steps up again and manages to surprise
me. Well, not to worry, it keeps me supplied with ammunition for more poetry.
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