In the midst of extremely long hours and hard work dealing with serious crimes, the Weyburn Police Service has been pleasantly surprised by the show of support by the community, in the form of thank-you cards, pizzas and Tim Horton’s cards.
“The Weyburn Police Service has had a lot of challenges in the last number of months, including a number of drug search warrants, use of force incidents, an incident where an officer was almost hit by a car, and then the homicide investigation near the beginning of January,” said chief Marlo Pritchard.
“What really comes across, especially during the homicide investigation … the community reached out with gestures that were extremely supportive, and from my perspective especially, shows how supported we are by the community.”
He noted the homicide and home invasion incident was particularly difficult for the department, as many officers put in 18-20 hours a day, went home for a couple of hours of rest and were back at work doing the investigation.
Even now, with three suspects in custody, making their second court appearance on Tuesday, there is still a lot of investigation needing to be completed on the case, said chief Pritchard, and demonstrations of support often came unlooked-for and anonymously, and these meant a lot to the officers and to chief Pritchard to see this.
“We had pizzas show up, and individuals dropped off Tim Horton’s cards with thank-you notes in them. When you’re tired and you’ve been here for several hours working on a case, they’ll never know how important that is for the organization to receive this support,” said the chief.
Pritchard noted he has worked with larger police forces, such as in Regina, as well as with officers from across Canada and from around the world, and he said of the officers here in Weyburn, “I’m working with some of the best police personnel found anywhere, who are willing to drop everything they’re doing to ensure the requirements of the police service and of public safety are being met. These investigations are not just one or two officers, it’s a true team effort to make these investigations and to have a successful outcome.”
He added that even in larger police departments, homicide investigations are very labour-intense, requiring many long hours of work.
“It really does stretch us to the max,” said chief Pritchard, pointing out there are ongoing calls for assistance that continue to come in while the investigations are going on, and they also need to be responded to and taken care of.
With all the years of police service he’s seen, the chief said, “This is the first time I’ve seen people anonymously show up with pizzas or Tim Horton’s cards, or even just dropping off thank-you cards, saying ‘thank you for all the work that you do’. Every one of these gestures means a lot to the members and to me personally. It’s made me feel that all the extra hours we’ve put in are worth it.”
