“OS OCCUPATION:
- constable, West Vancouver Police
“Department. -
.@ RESIDENCE:
‘ couver

ESA FACE GEANE FASD EY 4 Ad i

_ WV Chief constable Hal Jenkins is proud

ELTA TE

DBT SSD SESE

SRE $8 DASHA E II ay

of the department and the municipality

e NAME: Hal Jenkins
@ AGE: 54
Chief

North VYan-
-@ BORN: Little Britain, Ont.

@ FAMILY: | Wife. Adele,
daughters °

two

"WHILE GROWING up on

.a farm’

in Little Britain,
Ont., Hal Jenkins saw a lot
of livestock .bui no Moun-
ties. '

”. By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

He knew at avery young age,
however, that he just had to be a
"> policeman...

‘Today, Jenkins runs one of the
most successful municipal ° police
departments in B.C.”

'- Unlike. most police chiefs, or

‘+ “chief- constable’? as the post is

46 Someone out there is continually changing the goal
posts on you so the concern of today may not
necessarily be the concern of tomorrow.9¥

Police Department’s ice hockey
team.

Jenkins admits he may be a lit-
tle biased when he says West
Vancouver is probably the best
community in Canada in which to
be a police officer.

But if it were not for the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) . marriage — restrictions,
Jenkins probably would never
have joined the West Vancouver
Police Department.

When he was 18 years old, he
applied to join the RCMP and
was accepted one year later.

His first posting was with the
Vernon RCMP detachment. But
when the RCMP told Jenkins in
1960 that he was prohibited from
marrying for five years, Jenkins
quit his job and applied with the

SEE JENKINS ON PAGE 38

~i.known-in Canada,: Jenkins is far

-from the typical police chief image
“ portrayed by most television police’
“shows. -

He . does not spend -his. days
© playing golf with :Mayor Mark .
~ Sager and ignoring the concerns of
his charges.

In fact, Jenkins will ‘soon’ be
lacing ‘up his skates: to ‘play
‘alongside the police constables. he

“commands on the West Vancouver

“Lorraine
Bullock |

West Vancouver Police Depart-
ment and the Vancouver City

Potice Department.
He. started in West Vancouver

as a probationary constable.

./ Jenkins was promoted to the
_post of chief constable in 1967.

Asked to describe a typical day

_at work, Jenkins says there is no
such thing..°

“Someone out there is con-
tinually changing the goal posts on

Michele
Davies

‘the next day,”

— flal Jenkins

you so the concern of today may
not necessarily be the concern of
tomorrow, because there is always
something new hitting the desk.
“The result is, before you came

_in, | removed a lot of things from

my desk and put them away in
order to clean off the top of my
desk so we both could see it,’
Jenkins says during an interview
in his office.

Jenkins prides himself on the
job his police department does
and the quality of ‘service his
police officers offer to the citizens
of West Vancouver.

“There is an unwritten motto
that we try to practise and that is:
‘No call too small.’

“If you have a problem and
you phone the police, we will try
to assist you with it, whether it is
a policing probiem or not. But

most importantly, we'll aitend and”

we'll attend now, not next week or
says Jenkins.

His older brother worked as a
detective with the Toronto City
Police Department and -. Jenkins
says he can recall the times he
went on ride-alongs with his
brother.

“} would go out with him the
odd time and act as a target in
downtown  Toronto,’’, Jenkins
smiles.

Tiffany
Gilmore

Jensen

Still offering Private Collision and»
Comprehensive with Free Emergency Road
. Service to qualifying buyers.

PARK ROYAL.

NORTH
O922-9321

hs ‘
ute’ Royal Insurance

Canada

For all your Insurance needs.

Slinger

INSURANCE

Outside entrance
between
Canada. Trust
& the Bay

NEWS photo Tarry Peters’
WEST VANCOUVER Police Department ‘chief constable ‘Hal.

_ Jenkins decided at an early age to go into police work.

WE DO WINDOWS . coe:
for your style of living