WALKING THE BEAT FOR THE LAST TIME

One of Last From Former Five-Member Lakefield Force, Jim Carson
Retires After 31 Years

City police Sgt. Jim Carson spent his last day on the job yesterday.

The 53-year-old officer retired after more than 31 years with two
police forces, Peterborough-Lakefield and, before amalgamation, the
Lakefield police.

"I'm going to miss the people I work with," Carson told The Examiner.
"I'll miss some parts of the job, I've been pretty fortunate to work
with some pretty dedicated, professional people and those people I'm
certainly going to miss."

He's looking forward to having more time to spend with his family -
his wife, Hope, his three daughters and his two grandsons.

"You miss a lot of things with shift work, sometimes you miss
birthdays and Christmas dinners, but my family was pretty
understanding," Carson said, adding he hopes to stay involved with
minor sports including the Lakefield Minor Hockey Association and
Lakefield Minor Softball. "Other than that I'm going to sit back and
take it easy for while."

Born, raised and still living in Lakefield, Carson says he's lucky to
have had the opportunity to serve as an officer in his small hometown.

He joined the force as a cadet in the 1970s because police work
sounded like the type of job he wanted to do - he heard a lot about
it from his brother, a city police officer, and an uncle in the OPP.

"The 24 years I spent in Lakefield were probably the best years of my
career," Carson said. "The citizens in the village of Lakefield have
really treated myself and my family really well. Lakefield is a great
place to work and a great place to live."

As a uniformed officer in the village, Carson spent a lot of time
walking his daily beat.

"We tried to spend a lot of time in Lakefield on foot patrol
interacting with the citizens and spending as much time as we could
with the younger people," Carson said.

When the city police and Lakefield departments amalgamated in 1999,
Carson said there was some adjustment but lots of support as he made
the transition from a five-member force to a 90-plus officer department.

"The strong part of any organization is the frontline officers and
the biggest thing I didn't realize is the amount of time the officers
spend on and off duty interacting and helping the community," Carson
said, thinking back to when he joined the city force.

One thing didn't change.

"The crime is the same whether it's in Peterborough or Lakefield,"
Carson said, adding there just seemed to be more of it with the large
population.

For the last four years he's worked in the criminal investigation
unit and supervised officers doing property crime and drug investigation.

"These people put their heart and soul into that kind of work,"
Carson said praising his fellow officers.

One of the highlights from his years in the investigations unit is
Project Crackdown, the undercover investigation earlier this year
which targeted street level crack cocaine users.

His involvement in investigating drug crime has convinced him that
crime is getting more violent and is more often drug-fuelled.

"A lot of it has to do with the emergence of the use of crack
cocaine," Carson said. "A lot of the problems we're having with
property crimes and assaults has a lot to do with the emergence of
crack cocaine and harder drugs."

As drug-related crime goes up and becomes more violent Carson said
there is a greater danger to officers.

"When I first started, once a year or once every two or three years
you'd here about an officer being shot now it's becoming almost a
monthly occurrence," Carson said. "It is a worry. There is no doubt
it's always in the back of a police officer's mind."

In his 31 years on the job Carson said he was never injured.

"That's why training is such an important issue today," Carson said.
"My training in the last 15 years probably doubled over the training
I received in the first 15."

Although he thinks people have less respect for police officers today
than they used to, he has nothing but good things to say about all
his colleagues.

"Over my career I've worked closely with OPP officers and other
agencies and I have a lot of respect for their professionalism and
dedication," Carson said. "I have a lot of respect for the people
here in our organization."

Carson's advice to younger cops just starting out:

"Treat people, no matter what walk of life, the same way you'd want
to be treated."