POLICE DON'T FIND DEATH IS TRIVIAL

The Editor,

Re: "Family told of death 3 months late," the Now, Feb. 4.

I have been a police officer for seven years and am offended at Mr.
Brown's insinuation that officers would trivialize his brother's
remains as a "junkie corpse." While I am sorry for his loss, I am
irate and have two points to make.

Firstly, suicides, drug overdoses, critical incidents (ie. shootings
), victims of violence and crime are things we see every day.

Our day-to-day work can have lasting effects on our emotions and job
performance. I have never seen any co-worker of mine trivialize the
death of a human, drug addict or not. We are always aware that the
deceased has a family who cares and we are the ones who have to make
the ever-dreaded "notification of next of kin."

Secondly, I must also comment on the "supposed" lack of police action
to track you down. We do not have access to your forwarding address
from Canada Post. And operating within the restrictions of privacy
rights can make obtaining information through other government
agencies equally impossible.

I highly doubt that your brother's sudden death file was concluded and
suggest that the quest to locate family would have continued. One
database we can access is the Motor Vehicle Branch. Was your driver's
licence address current? This is one example of how changing your
address within 10 days of moving could avoid similar situations.

I have empathy for the Brown family, but even more so for his brother,
Bruce. You know, the one who died three months ago and for whom no
family came looking. I cannot help but feel that the Browns are
lashing out in their grief and guilt to avoid acknowledging that they
neglected to report him missing.

M. Wilks

Surrey