I will admit to a little trepidation in composing this blog and sending the message it contains. The reason I am nervous is that I have decided that this will be my last blog under the banner of BehindtheYellowtape.ca.— that in other words, I will be closing down the web site.

This is a place which has been my writing home since 2017 and I will miss it. When I began this blog experiment I had serious doubts and questioned if I could transition from the world of policing and investigations and wander over to the left side of the brain. Could I entertain my creative side and explore the art of writing while at the same time speak to the policing issues of the day. In some ways, this site was both my therapy and my adventure. I felt the need to try and figure it out, so I took the leap.

It turns out it seemed to work out and now as I look back over these years I have written a blog roughly every two weeks; 168 blogs, totalling about 252,000 words (the equivalent of about two books). To be sure it was at times work and required a dedication and a daily time allotment. The “work” of writing was in itself mostly enjoyable and I even liked the required research that went along with it. So, I am not leaving and shutting down because of the work and the time commitment.

There are two basic reasons I am going to leave this platform; I would like the time to explore other writing possibilities and secondly I do believe that everything has a shelf life and I no longer feel that my writings have the same relevance to the topic as when it began.

This realization came gradually, as I traveled along the continuum of the work/life curve. With the passage of time, it became easier to see my growing distance away from the day to day of the police officer. Facts are facts. I have now been out of policing since November 2011 and now find myself firmly embedded in the “older” generation. The reality is that I now stand before you as a greying balding symbol of “old school” policing. The technology and the cultural changes as they advance are molding a different type of police officer; a police officer who is facing new and different challenges. The job hasn’t changed, just the way it is done. It is a proud profession and when you leave it and the retirement clock starts– at some point you need to come to the realization that your experience is not current enough to be relevant to the readers.

Of course, I could have continued to write and stick with some of the broader legal and investigative issues. However, I have already covered most of those broader issues, sometimes two and three times and at some point it tends to get repetitive. During this time I have for the most part steered clear of writing about issues such as pensions, dental plans, or veterans affairs claims, because if I am honest, those issues don’t keep my interest for very long. I have also refused to write about individual bitches and complaints forwarded to me by other officers, even though they may be of some interest. For the main reason that it is often difficult to sort out the objective truth from the subjective viewpoint in these often complicated and nuanced cases.

At the end of the day this blog has been read a couple of hundred thousand times and has even reached some readers in the far off portions of the world. Through the blog I have been able to re-connect with many distant friends some of whom I had not spoken with for decades and that has been one of the best outcomes of this whole endeavour.

There have been many that have commented on the blog and who have written to it. I have enjoyed it all. There are a core of dedicated readers and commentators who I have also enjoyed when they share their thoughts. You know who you are and I wish to thank all of you for paying attention and taking the time to read, whether you agreed or disagreed. In all those blogs and in all those years, believe it or not, there has been only four or five negative comments, which both encouraged me and made me feel that there was a silent majority for whom I was possibly giving a voice.

To be clear I am not going to stop writing. I will continue and hopefully some of it will surface on different platforms. I am also hoping that the quality of writing will continue to improve as I am very much still learning. It is indeed an art form that has a steep learning curve. I will also let you in on a bit of a secret. During the past two and a half years I have been writing a non-fiction book, which is now complete and in the process of being shlepped to a few literary agents. The hope is that it will provide an entry to the mainstream publishing world and on to someone’s bookshelf. The book is tentatively called “Ponytail” and it is the life story of Rapinder @Rob Sidhu, a member of the RCMP in Surrey and Vancouver, an officer who became infamous in his time–who ended up being a prolific drug trafficker, got caught by the Americans and served eight years in the American prison system. It was the early 2000’s when he became a real thorn in the side of the policing community of the time. For the book, I conducted over 200 hours of interviews with Rob, who has also personally contributed some of his writings for the book. It is a dark story, but one that needs to be told and will likely be of interest and be a lesson to many cops. Rob had reached out to me to write his story because he followed the blog.

I have also been working with a documentary film crew, examining the Jodi Hendrickson case, a 17 year old girl who went missing and presumed murdered in 2009. It was technically my last “murder case”. It has in turn exposed me to the world of film and film production and spurred an interest in screen-writing.

In other words, I will be o.k. and plan to stay busy.

Writing is a lonely endeavour and was often my solace in the difficult times, a place to escape, but also a place to go when feeling uplifted. I recommend the writing process to anyone, those hidden Hemingways that are out there, and maybe there is a younger version of a blog to come to speak to the issues of the day. In terms of the writing, I leave you with one last quote, this from writer Daphne Rose Kingman, “Holding on is believing there is only a past; letting go is knowing there is a future. “

Whether you are an active officer, a new recruit, or an old vet, my wish is the same, that you enjoy the best of what life has to offer in the years to come, and that you embrace all the various stages of life that are coming your way. Again, my deepest thanks.

Have a good shift.

Pete