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six man opp police force patrols town 24 hours daily iii corporal r mason police chief operation of the police force in acton is explained here the days of the oneman po lice force have long gone the way of the moustache cup and buggy wriip business to re- flace the lone town constable who not only enforced the law but also acted as the municipal dog catcher the census taker building inspector truant offi cer and street sweeper there is highly mobile specially train ed threeshift police force confronting municipal coun cils are two alternative meth ods of law enforcement under the first alternative the municipality establishes its own police commission which oper ates a locallycontrolled munici pal police force the other alternative open to municipalities in ontario with a population of less than 5000 is to enter into a contract with the ontario provincial police for police service within the town it is the second alternative that acton chose many years ago under the existing contract with the opp acton has a six- man police force under veteran corp ray mason looking after police work in acton bv choosing to operate under contract with the opp the ma jor benelit gained by the town would appear to be a less expen sive form of police protection free from local interference in its exercise of duties plus the additional benelit ol being in tegrated with a province wide interconnected organization aeon detachment is under the supervision of district head- quarters in burlington and com prises corp- mason and con stables mervin harness bruce kressler bruce mcarthur nick farion and peter camp bell another advantage to being under contract with the opp is that the special services and facilities of the provincial po lice are immediately available through their radio link with ontario headquarters which is interconnected with all police forces in north america through a modern telex system soon to be installed in the ac ton police office will be a radio monitoring system to keep the local office abreast of all calls and information broadcast over the policenadio system- worklng on three eight hour shifts the local detachment patrols the town 24 hours a day on foot or in the cruiser with constant supervision over the industrial commercial and resi dential areas although facilities for the po lice force have been improved in the past few years corp ma son anticipates the detachment will require larger and more up- todate office quarters and a lockup he foresees the growth of the detachment will necessi tate a fulltime stenographer for the office training and duty for a po liceman never end and the men of acton detachment attend training courses at burlington on their own time they take lectures and training in the use ot tear gas small arms and ma chine guns the criminal code the liquor control act high way traffic act crowd control and the latest methods of crim inal investigation even five years the con stable is required to take a re- iresher course in st john am bulance first aid training before a candidate is accept ed in the provincial police he must meet certain require ments which include high school graduation physical at tributes and provision ol char acter references alter accept ance the recruit attends a po lice college for a six week basic training and on graduation joins a detachment as a probat ionary constable citizens requiring the assist- committee of adjustment deals with minor variances following is a report out lining the operation of the committee of adjustment the town ot acton controls the building within its boundar ies bv adopting zoning and building bvlaws these bylaws define among other important matters the size ol vonr lot the foot hontage the distance your building must be i rom the front lot line and the side lines to deal with minor variances to their bylaws the town council bv permission from the provincial government have established a committee ol ad justment g w mckenzie chairman since a minor variance is not clearlv defined it is the respon sibility ol the committee to take each application received pro cess it according to the estab lished rules and regulations unci make a decision it might be interesting to know that when an application is iccched everyone within 200 leet ot the altected property is notified b letter and nuv at tend the meeting all meetings ate public hearings with the lo cal press in attendance w7ien a decision has been i cached a copy ol the applica tion the minutes of their meet ing and the motion outlining t heir decision is mailed to the minister ol municipal al fairs in the provincial government theie is a 14day waiting per iod during this time the com mittees decision ma be appeal ed by the minister or anyone ilillv concerned if during the i 4 iias no appeals have been canoj the committees decis ion is 1 mat the present lommiltee is iiinisal i lui lav smith li muks and gnicl kkui- c member ol the lomnul- is awiintcd in a tluee var in hv i low 1 c rii i the pieseni time the scue- 1111i wink tor the committee vjliitiikiit is iu ne 111 the u 11 ki and aiivone making 1 application pavs a tee ot 10 to help covei the aisi ol pio- cessing their application ance of the police department normally make their request by telephoning the police office at 8531250 with no secretary in the of fice it quite often happens that the police olficers on duty are not in the office in this ev ent a recording machine cuts into the telephone circuit and a citizens request is recorded the operation of the recording device turns on the red light at the corner of mill and main sts when the policeman sees this signal on he immediately returns to the police office to play back the tape during 1965 the local detach ment had no major crime to deal with traffic violations break and entry of buildings and violations under the liquor control act comprise most of the entiies in their daily log each policeman has a month ly quota ol car salety checks thjfsjnusi be met accident pre vention instruction and school salety patrol assistance are ad ditional duties as well as all the federal and provincial regulations the loc al detachment is required to enforce thev also are respons ible for the enforcement of loc al bylaws as established bv ac ton council cooperation with the mil ton detachment which supervi ses neighboring esquesing and istassagaweva townshfps re sults in additional benefit cnii- sers and additional officers from milton have been made available 10 assist acton in crowd control and tiansporting prisoners to jail in milton no arrested persons are kept in acton as there are no facilit ies all court cases are heard in milton acton officers must attend these court sessions on their time olf nd thev are re- imbliised by alternative time off later to police any community pro- pcrl there 1111st 00 cooperat ion between the police and pub lic corp mason savs he and his staff enjov excellent cooper ation and relationships with the people ot acton mason knitting company limited best wishes and sincere appreciation to the employees former employees friends and associates of this company who make acton a pleasant and satisfactory manufacturing localitytoday and during the past forty years a3ki kmdimra gzake7 t o limited childrens underwear acton ontario