Fw: Auxiliary Constable Memorial Petition
NYS Assoc. of Aux Police
Glenn J. Kearney
President,
New York State Association of Auxiliary Police
http://www.auxiliary-police.org
Dear Mr. Kearney,
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I am an Auxiliary Constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Surrey, BC, Canada. We are the largest Auxiliary program in Canada with over 100 members. I am writing to request the assistance of your organization with regards to one of our fallen members.
In November of 2004, A/Cst. Glen EVELY was working in patrol with a full time member of the RCMP. The patrol car they were in was struck by a reportedly impaired driver who had just fled a police chase. The alleged impaired driver ran a stop light and collided with the patrol car killing A/Cst. EVELY and severely injuring his regular partner.
In Canada, Auxiliary and Reserve officers are sworn members and considered “on-duty” while in uniform and performing authorized duties. Once the services for A/Cst. EVELY were concluded, an application was made to the Canadian Peace and Police Officers Memorial to have A/Cst. EVELY’s name added. The board of the memorial concluded that since A/Cst. EVELY was an Auxiliary, he was not eligible for the memorial. After three attempts by the RCMP to have A/Cst. EVELY’s name added, the board actually changed the criteria for acceptance to specifically exclude Auxiliary and Reserve members. An incredible situation that can not be understood by anyone.
Late last year, it was decided that we needed to do something to educate the public and the board of the memorial of the service we provide to the community and that, being sworn members being put in harms way, our sacrifices to the community do justify the honour of being placed on the national memorial. Especially in the case of A/Cst. EVELY, who made the ultimate sacrifice with his life. He left behind a wife and two small children, and the thanks he gets is that he is not good enough for the memorial.
A/Cst. EVELY has been recognized by a number of provincial memorials and the RCMP’s own memorial at the training headquarters in Regina, Saskatchewan. It is just this one organization, based in our nation’s capitol, which has not deemed it necessary to receive his name.
I would like to ask for the support of your board and all of your members in the signing of our petition to have the Canadian Peace and Police Officers Memorial reverse its decision to have Auxiliary and Reserve members placed on the national memorial.
As of the writing of this email, we have 8250 names on the petition with the goal of getting over 20000. Although we are a Canadian organization, we feel that policing is a global effort and our two countries share a common goal in crime reduction.
The petition can be signed at the following web address. The full story of A/Cst. EVELY’s last duty and the struggle with the memorial can be found there as well.
http://www.surreyauxiliary.org/petition
We are asking that everyone sign the petition and then pass the link on to everyone in their personal and work email address books. This will help get the word out and hopefully our message will be heard.
I thank you in advance for your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
A/Cst. Dave Langlands
Surrey RCMP