Recipients

Chief Constable Jim Chu Remarks

Each year around this time we gather to recognize and applaud the actions of the men and women of the Vancouver Police Department and the civilians in our community who have gone Beyond the Call.

Our timing here is not accidental. As we begin the new year, it is always fitting to look back at the year just completed and look forward to the challenges ahead.

When it comes to challenges, last year had more than its share.

The night of June 15th was a night when we saw the worst in people and, at the same time, the best in people. While I think we’ve talked enough about the rioters, I will never get tired of talking about the brave men and women, both sworn and civilian, who stood up to the mob.

It takes a special type of courage and an unshakeable sense of right and wrong to do what they did that night. It’s the type of bravery and commitment that may be difficult to describe, but we all recognize it when we see it. For those outside the fray, we often stand in awe and respect.

It is the same way that many of us feel at this time of year when we come together to celebrate the actions and efforts of those who displayed such an overriding sense of commitment and civic duty that nothing would stop them — no threat to their own safety, no task too daunting, no obstacle too great.

This morning you will hear their stories.

I know you will join me in awe and respect because it is a reminder of the good that waits in all of us when it is our time to go Beyond the Call.

From the Vancouver Courier - Dec. 13, 2011

The Vancouver Police Department will soon add two new horses to its mounted squad and one will be named after… a major retail chain known for its electronic goods?

London Drugs has donated $7,000 to the Vancouver Police Foundation with the understanding the money be distributed to the VPD’s mounted squad.

In honour of the donation, which will also be used to buy a power washer for the squad’s barn at Stanley Park, the VPD decided it will name one of the horses “London.”

But before the public thinks the VPD is embarking on a marketing drive to name its police service animals after corporate donors, Const. Lindsey Houghton, a VPD media relations officer, said that’s not the case.

“There was no expectation of us naming the horse after the company, the president or anything like that,” Houghton told the Courier. “The mounted squad thought the name London was actually a pretty good name for a horse.”

The $7,000 from London Drugs came from a fundraising campaign the retail chain launched after the June 15 Stanley Cup riot to thank police for their efforts that night and support the Vancouver Police Foundation. The campaign involved the sale of “I love Vancouver” T-shirts and donations from the public.

The London Drugs store at Granville and Georgia was ransacked and looted during the riot, causing $650,000 in damage. Employees were forced to hide in a reinforced steel room in the store.

“I will always be grateful that the police were able to save our staff,” said Wynne Powell, the CEO of London Drugs. “They took some time to respond because of the terrible night that they were dealing with. But when they came, they came in force and they got our people out safely.”

Powell said the money was given to the mounted squad after a discussion with the Vancouver Police Foundation on how best to use the money.

“They brought up the horse idea and that was very comfortable with us because the horses were one of the assets that were extremely helpful at protecting people during the riot,” he said.

The VPD recently purchased “London” but Houghton didn’t immediately know the cost. The VPD also purchased London’s brother, who has yet to be given a name. Both horses are undergoing training and expected to be on the job in January.

So what’s Powell think about the VPD naming one of the horses London?

“It’s fantastic,” he said, echoing Houghton’s comments there was no expectation the horse be named after the company. “I’m just delighted they’re doing that. That will be a horse that will remind everybody about their generosity.”

Private donations to the VPD and its foundation are not new.

In the past year, the VPD accepted $30,000 from private citizen Tony Elwood to be used for the department’s diversity and aboriginal policing section.

The Aboriginal Community Center Employment Services Society also donated $20,000 to pay for the wages of three aboriginal people involved in the VPD’s aboriginal cadet program.

The VPD accepted eight tactical vests worth a total of $20,000 from ArmorWorks Canada Limited and the Vancouver Police Foundation raised $72,000 toward the construction of a “Memorial Wall” for fallen officers at the Graveley Street police station

mhowell@vancourier.com

Twitter: @Howellings

December 9, 2011

With the continuing cold weather and icy road conditions, the VPD is issuing a timely reminder to watch for young students coming and going from schools around the city. Kids are very distracted at this time of year in the lead up to Christmas and drivers need to be extra cautious.

School safety patrols began in 1935. Currently, there are 35 active patrols in the Vancouver school district, with approximately 1,300 students participating.

“The challenges of student pedestrian safety have only grown since the initiative began in 1935, making support for programs like this more important than ever,” says Patti Bacchus, the Board of Education Chair.

The Vancouver Police Foundation has provided a $15,000 donation, funding the program through 2013.

“The Foundation promotes alternative funding to inspire innovative community partnerships with the Vancouver Police Department,” says Valerie MacLean, Executive Director of the Vancouver Police Foundation. “This program is another example of a community partnership that enhances public safety, for which the Vancouver Police Foundation is very proud to provide funding. This program also holds special meaning for me, as I was a student patroller myself years ago.”

Vancouver Police Traffic Authority members are responsible for training student safety patrollers.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/posters+picturing+Stanley+riot+suspects+distributed/5720934/story.html

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver police department is blitzing the Lower Mainland with 35,000 posters featuring pictures of 104 suspects from the Stanley Cup riot whom police have yet to identify.

Police Chief Jim Chu did not disclose the cost of the poster campaign, but said in a written news release Wednesday that the Vancouver Police Foundation provided funding.

“In the history of the VPD, we have never done what we are doing today,” Chu said in the release. “A team of 150 volunteers is blanketing our region. They are standing outside of colleges, shopping malls and … the stores that were the victims that night.

“If all goes well we hope that more than 100,000 people will eventually see this poster either in person or online.”

Sgt. Howard Chow with the Integrated Riot Investigation Team issued an update late Wednesday afternoon saying, ” The 35,000 posters our army of volunteers have been handing out have already had a major impact. We’ve been receiving tips all afternoon regarding the photos in the poster.”

So far police have recommended 163 charges against 60 people allegedly involved in rioting and vandalism, but estimate as many as 700 people will likely face charges by the time the investigation is concluded.

The riot in downtown Vancouver that followed the Vancouver Canucks’ loss in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on June 15 resulted in millions of dollars worth of damage.

Chief Constable Jim Chu’s statement Wednesday:

What happened on June 15th was extraordinary.

It calls for extraordinary measures.

In the history of the VPD we have never done what we are doing today.

As we speak, a team of 150 volunteers are blanketing our region.

They are standing outside of colleges, shopping malls and, like our location here, the stores that were the victims that night.

They are handing out this a brochure that unfolds into a poster containing the pictures of 104 suspected rioters.

In a one day blitz of the city we will put this poster into the hands of more than 35,000 people.

We hope that in many cases they will share the poster with others or even post it in a high traffic area.

If all goes well we hope that more than 100,000 people will eventually see this poster either in person or on line.

We need as many people as possible to help us identify the rioters in these pictures.

We understand that for many residents it seems like the riot was a long time ago, but for the members of the VPD and the victims of that night, it might as well have been yesterday.

Some of our critics have said why bother.

We bother because we care.

We care about what happened to the victims.

We care about what happened to the reputation of our city.

And we care that as many rioters as possible will be held accountable for what they did that night.

We believe the members of our community care as well and will help us identify those responsible.

I would like to thank the Vancouver Police Foundation for providing funding to cover the costs of these posters.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

From The Vancouver Sun – November 2, 2011

http://www.vancouversun.com/Jeanne+Ambrose+work+with+police+family+matter/5643665/story.html

In 1955, Jeanne Ambrose joined the Vancouver police department and found herself as a bystander to the biggest scandal ever to hit the force.

She had been hired as an executive secretary posted to the office of chief Walter Mulligan. Soon after her arrival, a commission of inquiry would begin to investigate reports that Mulligan had been taking bribes from gamblers and bootleggers, and that the force was riddled with corruption.

During the inquiry, Supt. Harry Whelan committed suicide, and the head of the city’s gambling squad, Len Cuthbert, attempted it. Meanwhile, Mulligan applied for landed immigrant status in the U.S. and moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a limousine dispatcher at the Los Angeles airport. In 1956, the inquiry found that Mulligan had taken bribes, but the attorney-general’s office ruled it didn’t have enough evidence to support the inquiry’s finding and would not take the case to court. Mulligan returned to Canada and retired to Oak Bay. Jack Webster, who was making his name covering the inquiry, called it a “whitewash.”

Despite all this, Ambrose remained a loyalist. Nothing was ever proven against Mulligan, she said, and charges were never laid. She continued to work for the VPD until 1960, when she married deputy chief Gordon Ambrose.

“You were not allowed at that time to have two people earning the same superannuation,” she said, “so I had to quit.”

But then she got the position – an unpaid one, Ambrose said – of chauffeuring VPD chiefs’ wives and the wives of the board of the police commission to official functions.

When her husband retired in 1964, they left the force and raised a family. Her husband died in 1983. Though he had been ill for some time, and she thought she had prepared herself for it, his death traumatized her.

“He was in hospital for a couple of months from cancer of the spine, and I knew his death was coming. But when the person dies it’s suddenly so final. And it’s very difficult.”

After his death, she got a call from deputy-chief Ted Lister asking if she would like to come back to the force. She was 55.

“I said yes, but not at 312 Main. There were too many memories there. So I was posted to CLEU [the Coordinated Law Enforcement Unit, the provincial police intelligence force since replaced by the Organized Crime Agency of B.C.].

The nature of her work?

“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you what I did there. I signed a paper that I would not reveal the nature of my work with CLEU.”

She worked there 10 years, then retired.

She never entirely cut her ties with the force, however. She helped open up the Kerrisdale-Oakridge-Marpole Community Policing office.

But then, 18 years ago, something happened that brought Ambrose back to the force. A VPD officer died at work of natural causes.

“The widow of the officer complained to the mayor and the board of police commissioners that she felt she was not treated properly at her husband’s death, because the chief had not appeared at her door to tell her personally her husband had passed away.”

The VPD responded to the complaint by forming a bereavement support committee – the only one, Ambrose believed, in Canada. The committee was to supply emotional support to the family, and help arrange any funeral details befitting an officer. Ambrose volunteered her services.

“I felt that when somebody’s loved one passes away, they need help. There are just so many things to attend to, but the bereaved is walking around in a fog. So you need somebody to hold your hand and make suggestions. And that’s why I do what I do.”

When an officer dies, the VPD contacts her, and she then contacts the family. She offers to find a chapel for the service, supply an honour guard and piper if the family wishes (most do), and makes sure a contingent of senior officers will be in attendance. She arranges transportation and seating for the honour guard and senior officers. She’ll explain the force’s life insurance policy to the family. And she attends every service, no matter where it is.

The services take a lot of her time. It can take a week to plan one funeral, and Ambrose has done a lot of them.

“Over the 18 years I have been doing it, I figure I do at least two a month. And this year, I’m up to 18 so far. I recently did three in a week.”

For a woman in her 80s, it’s a remarkable expenditure of energy. Ambrose is the bereavement committee, since she hasn’t found anyone else who will volunteer to do it. But her age gives her a perspective a younger person might lack: She knows all of the old members who are passing. The long years on the force make for a shared understanding. What she does, she said, goes beyond the obligations of duty.

“It’s a family matter when you’re with the department,” she said.

“They are your family.”

pmcmartin@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Welcome to Step into Action, Dr. Riley Senft’s personal quest to save the lives of future Prostate Cancer victims by educating men on the steps to early Prostate Cancer detection. On May 7, 2011, from Mile Zero in Cape Spear, NL, Riley will run nearly 60km each day across the country, finishing in Vancouver.

View the Global TV clip
http://www.globaltvbc.com/video/pay+attention+to+prostate+cancer/video.html?v=2149288034&p=1&s=dd#stories/video

Step Into Action website
http://stepintoaction.ca/

From The Vancouver Sun – September 28, 2011

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vancouver+police+investigating+gunshots/5466199/story.html

VANCOUVER – An armed stand-off near 45th and Fraser ended Tuesday evening when Vancouver Police found the gunman dead from a self-inflicted wound.

Const. Lindsey Houghton said police worked for hours to make contact with the 20-year-old who is believed to have shot up several vehicles in the 600-block of East 45th Avenue just before 1 p.m.

Police evacuated nearby homes and apartments when they realized the man had retreated into his residence on East 45th with his firearm.

“Because there were firearms involved, our Emergency Response Team was here out of an abundance of caution and because they are equipped and trained to deal with matters like this. They threw in a flash-bang grenade which is designed to both stun and disorient somebody,” Houghton said.

They also threw in a phone with a direct line to a crisis negotiator, he said.

“And also we had a small robot that we were able to throw into the suite and that’s how we were able to see the man laying on the floor,” Houghton said.

He said investigators will follow up to see where the young man got his long-gun and whether it was legally registered. And they will talk to friends and relatives to see if they can determine what led to the tragic events.

“Our thoughts go to the man family,” Houghton said.”We may never know what triggered the shots being fired today because we can’t ask the person we want to ask the most.”

The incident does not have any gang links, Houghton said.

At least eight blocks just west of Fraser between 41st and 49th were cordonned off for several hours as the drama unfolded.

Curious neighbours lined yellow police tape at East 45th and St. George’s as heavily-armed officers patrolled the area.

The shooting came amid escalating tension among Metro Vancouver gangs over the fatal shooting in Kelowna last month of Red Scorpion Jon Bacon and the suspected retaliatory attack on Jujhar Khun-Khun Sept. 16 in Surrey. Khun-Khun survived and is in critical condition.

The Tuesday shooting occurred in a quiet residential neighbourhood off Fraser Street. There is a daycare down the block from where the cars were shot up.

And John Oliver Secondary – two blocks away – was put on “code yellow” – meaning students were not allowed to exit from the south side of the school and their release was staggered. The uniformed Gang Task Force also arrived to help VPD secure the area.

In the aftermath of the Stanley Cup riots, London Drugs has launched “I love Vancouver” T-shirts.

Proceeds from the sales will go to the Vancouver police foundation in appreciation of their efforts to keep the city safe.

“I am extremely grateful to the Vancouver police department for ensuring the safety of our staff at the downtown store at the height of the riots,” said Wynn Powell, president and CEO of London Drugs.

The T-shirts, said Powell, will allow citizens of Vancouver to express pride in their city and support the police at the same time.

Valerie MacLean, executive director of the police foundation, said she was extremely appreciative of the initiative.

The T-shirts come in two designs, are available at all Vancouver London Drugs stores and cost $19.99.

People can also show their support by making donations at store cashiers.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

A copy of London Drugs’ news release can be found below.

For immediate release

London Drugs pays tribute to the Vancouver Police Foundation

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – June 24 – Following the June 15 Stanley Cup riots in Vancouver, our London Drugs store at Georgia and Granville opened the next morning, recovering from significant damage and hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise stolen. The exact number of London Drugs losses is still being investigated.

London Drugs remains in deep appreciation of the Vancouver Police Department. We commend the officers who stood on the front lines of the riots and who assisted our staff to safety.

As a thank you to the Vancouver Police Department and to acknowledge the difficult job these individuals faced June 15th and each and every day in Vancouver, London Drugs has come up with a way for all of us to say “thank you”.

To help support the Vancouver Police Foundation and its mission to enhance public safety – London Drugs is proud to support the Vancouver Police Foundation in two new ways.  Customers can now make a donation at any Vancouver London Drugs cashier and also, we have created a sentiment that all citizens can now wear to show their support and pride in Vancouver.

“We created these (I Love Vancouver) shirts because we know the citizens of Vancouver feel the need to express pride in the city and there is no better cause to ensure Vancouver stays safe, than to support the Vancouver Police Foundation,” says Wynne Powell, London Drugs president and CEO.

Two shirts, inspired by the citizens of Vancouver, are today available at all Vancouver London Drugs stores. The cost is $19.99 and 100 per cent of the proceeds will go to the Vancouver Police Foundation.

For more information or to interview Wynne Powell, please call Wendy Hartley: 604-817-2758.

About London Drugs

Founded in 1945, B.C.-based London Drugs has 75 stores in more than 35 major markets throughout British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba including its online store www.londondrugs.com. London Drugs offers consumers a range of products from digital cameras and cosmetics to computers and televisions. Renowned for its creative approach to retailing, the company employs more than 7,500 people with pharmacy and health care services being the heart of its business. Committed to innovation and superior customer service, London Drugs has established itself as a reputable and caring company and continues to position itself for future growth and development.