LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS

Jack retired a number of years ago as assistant police chief and settled in the Cariboo to ride horses and guide hunters.

He began his law enforcement career in Winnipeg with the RCMP but tired of the winters, tried unsuccessfully to be transferred to the west coast, so joined the West Vancouver Police Department.

Over the years Jack shared many stories of life in uniform.

He recalled being the duty Sgt. one night when a constable was attempting to handcuff a drunk. Jack got up from his desk, walked over to the inebriated, punched him once, the guy dropped, the constable cuffed him, Jack returned to his desk.

The following is an excerpt from retired detective Stuart Leishman.

"Some of the most important tutelage of Leishman’s career came from Jack Ross.

Ross, a sergeant at the time, took the 140-pound rookie on a call to Horseshoe Bay to deal with motorcycle gang the 101 Knights, Leishman writes.

They got to the terminal and found: “20 hairy leather clad goons gathered around their Harley Davidsons” and another half-dozen racing motorcycles in the parking lot, he recalls.

Ross confronted the leader of the pack. At the time, Horseshoe Bay was a dead spot in terms of radio contact with the police office, Leishman writes. Leishman also notes that every other officer on duty at the time was tied up executing a search warrant at a Marine Drive hotel.

The two cops were on their lonesome.

Ross, nonetheless, told the bikers they had a group of officers waiting at the top of the hill and that if the bikers didn’t settle down: “We would kick some ass!”

It worked.

“They settled down and meekly waited in line until the ferry left,” Leishman writes.

Driving back to the station, Ross explained his take on psychological warfare, (slightly edited for the newspaper): BS baffles brains.

It was a credo Leishman took to heart."

https://www.nsnews.com/living/former-west-van-cop-recounts-life-behind-the-badge-in-new-book-3099216

I sought Jack's advice regarding pack trains for my second novel, 30,000 Secrets.

The setting was an era about five years prior to Canada and several American states legalizing cannabis. One of the antagonists grew and shipped high grade marijuana from southern Alberta to the Nez Perce Nation near Lewiston, Idaho.

From there it was shipped through the mountains to a domestic terrorist group in Cody, Wyoming.

Jack's knowledge of mules and transporting equipment for hunters through British Columbia's Cariboo mountains was invaluable.

Jack would have been 86 on December 24, 2022.