Stories from an RCMP officer
Forensics investigator talks four decades of policing that has taken him
from Yugoslavia to Resolute
Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Friday, May 19, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
"Charles Duncan would make a good police officer. He will look good in uniform. He is of average intelligence. He is of above average common sense."
RCMP forensic investigator Sgt. Chuck Duncan sits at a chair in his office at the RCMP detachment downtown. Duncan spoke to Yellowknifer about what has changed in policing over four decades. - Robin Grant/NNSL photo |
It was with those words from a recruiting co-ordinator that Sgt. Chuck Duncan began his career with the RCMP more than 36 years ago.
Today, he works as a forensics investigator of homicides, suspicious deaths, drug crimes, breaking and entering and other criminal code violations with the Yellowknife police department.
Decades ago, Duncan's career began like many young officers, on street patrol and rapid response policing.
After his first posting in Broadview, Sask. in the late 1970s, Duncan transferred to Lloydminster, which straddles the Saskatchewan/Alberta border, where he spent 10 years.
That's where his career got interesting, he said.
"It was exciting, you were on for 24 hours," he recalled. "The calls would come in, and you would respond. Often silent alarms would go off and you'd be there within seconds."
One winter's day, Duncan received a call about a silent alarm going off at a convenience store.
When he arrived at the location, he said he saw footprints in the snow, leading to the store.
He followed them to find the door smashed open.
Duncan said he entered the convenience store to find two men robbing it of cigarettes.
"I scared the heck out of them," he said. "I snuck right up to them and had my gun drawn, and I said, 'Freeze! Police! You're under arrest!'"
The two men stopped and looked at him. Then they looked at the door behind him.
"They said, 'You're alone.' And I said, 'Nope. I have Const. Smith and Const. Wesson with me,'" he recalled, referring to the type of firearm he was holding.
At the time, Duncan said he believed he handled the situation appropriately but he said times have changed.
"I think we are a lot more careful now," he said. "At that time, we were issued a firearm and our wits. You just had to think on your feet ... that's where the high common sense came in."
Duncan's career has also taken him abroad.
Of many memorable postings, he talked about when he spent six months in 1995 with the United Nations Protection Force - the first UN peacekeeping force - in Croatia Bosnia, and Herzegovina during the ethnically-based wars in the former Yugoslavia.
Stationed in Korenica, Croatia, his job as a police monitor was to observe the local police, ensure human rights violations weren't occurring, and oversee prisoner exchanges from safe zones.
From there, working with the United Nations as a deputy station commander, Duncan was later stationed in Russia, Jordan, Egypt, Ireland, Argentina, Malaysia and other countries to monitor and mentor local police forces in those countries.
But after 21 years, Duncan said he decided to enter the field of forensic investigation because he was interested in the science.
Forensic police work with the RCMP took him across Canada. One stop, for example, was Iqaluit. While there, Duncan was involved in the police response and investigation into the 2011 First Air jet crash in Resolute, which resulted in the death of 12 people.
"We relied heavily on the military at that scene because it was so remote that we did not have the capabilities to do what we needed to do," he said. "The military was already there, and they fell into place and helped us a lot."
The pilots had attempted a landing at the airport but due to heavy fog and misaligned navigational sensors, steered the plane into a hill instead.
"That was quite a scene," he remembered. "(It) just tore the belly out of the bottom of the plane, tore everything apart."
Duncan took a moment to reflect on the opportunities and limits of the type of work he does.
"Police work isn't for everyone," he said. "It can be an extremely difficult profession but it is also so rewarding. Even though I can't say I changed the world, I have changed the lives of many people. It allowed me to travel, to see the world, to see events as they are unfolding, be a part of history."
