Our newest program, Forensics for Adults, is no exception, having received some great attention recently. A few weeks ago, a great article appeared in Vancouver Courier, titled “Autopsy Class Sells Out Fast“.

Here we are on Global BC’s Saturday Morning news to promote the workshops:

(Video courtesy our our brand-new YouTube account!)

If you’d like to check these fun workshops out, information (and ticket sales) are available here.

Phyllis', early in her career. (VPM Archives)

This past week, we paid tribute to a woman who served as Vancouver Police Department’s first female Sergeant. Phyllis Mortimore passed away two weeks ago at the age of 92, after both a long and distinguished career and also a long and distinguished retirement. She helped pave the way for the 316 women that currently serve as members of the Vancouver Police Department.

Phyllis’  long life intersected with many different parts of our city’s history:

• She was the longest living member of Christ Church Cathedral, christened there in 1917 and active in church affairs until her passing.
• She was voted “most beautiful baby” at the PNE in 1918.
• She was taught to swim as a child by the legendary Vancouver lifeguard (and VPD Special Constable) Joe Fortes.

Phyllis (3rd from the left) and others at a VPD Function. (VPD Archives N01200s)

At 27, she was hired to the Vancouver Police Department as one of its early female officers. The Second World War had depleted the ranks of the VPD as many officers went overseas to serve, and so a number of women were hired as constables. At that time, she was supplied with a whistle, a badge and a police call box key but had to provide her own uniform.

Almost right away, her life intersected with a pivotal moment in Vancouver’s history. She described it as follows: “During World War II I became involved in a government-initiated plan that remains one of the greatest injustices of the 20th century, the confinement of Japanese-Canadians… During this horrendous episode, one of my duties was to assist the RCMP who were charged with escorting these poor people to the trains that carried them to the interior of the province for internment.” Certainly a challenging way to begin a career!

Phyllis, about to demonstrate her judo training? (VPM Archives N01195c)

A decade later, she played an important role in ensuring pay-equity for women in the VPD. In her own words: “One day in the mid-1950′s I saw Chief Constable George Archer getting into an elevator and I knew this was my chance. He had no way to escape the confined space so I asked him why we were not getting the same pay as the male officers. He replied “Well, you do not do the same work as the men.” I said, “I hate to contradict you, sir, but we do exactly the same work, but for much less pay.” Although taken aback, he asked me to submit to him personally a detailed report on our work within the police force, documenting the inequality between the men’s and women’s pay. I did this and forwarded my report to him. He took action. The Police Commission granted the raise in 1956…”

Wayne Mortimore with Chris Mathieson, discussing donated items. (Photo by News1130)

A year after that, she was the first woman promoted to the rank of sergeant in the Vancouver Police Department, earning the highest score of the 127 constables who wrote the exam that year. Despite her score, she still had to lobby for the promotion but her persistence was rewarded, opening up the opportunity for others to follow, which they did.

Phyllis also made a name for herself through her expert shooting ability, competing in (and winning) many different pistol and revolver competitions during her time on the job. (She was a member of the club mentioned in this post.)

She continued to serve with the VPD until March 1973 when she was rear-ended by another driver on her way to work. She took medical leave and tried to return to a desk job but chose instead to retire in 1974. Although no longer on the job, she kept active by dedicating herself to the Girl Guides organization as well as police-related organizations like the Vancouver Police Credit Union and the Vancouver Superannuated Police Officers Association (retired VPD member’s association). She was granted lifetime memberships to many organizations for her involvement and dedication to those causes.

Some of the items donated by the family.(Photo by News1130)

Last Thursday, we held a small press conference at the museum, providing the media information about her life and achievements. One of the members of her family, her nephew Wayne, joined us and shared some of his personal recollections of her. He also brought a number of items the family had found that related to her time as a police woman and donated them to the museum. Once we’ve processed them, expect to see her retirement badges, Long Service medal, shooting awards and more on display. In two years, when we’ve finished our major exhibit on the history of women in the VPD, expect Phyllis to be a significant part.

Her passing was noted in many media outlets including News 1130, CBC-TV (streaming video), Vancouverite, Vancouver Sun, and Global BC (streaming video). Please check them out!

You can also find out more about Phyllis, in her own words, by checking out the following interview transcribed by the staff at Christ Church Cathedral for their newsletter in the summer of 2009.

Thank you, Phyllis, for the trail that you blazed; our city and our police force are the better for it.

Many of you have said some very kind things about how we’ve embraced technology here at the Police Museum. Today, we’re happy to tell everyone that we’ve now got a partner to help us do even more innovative things!

Here’s the press release that’s just going out now:

NEWS RELEASE

ZERO ONE DESIGN SELECTS THE “ECLECTIC” VANCOUVER POLICE MUSEUM FOR THEIR POPULAR “SPONSOR A MUSEUM” PROGRAM

After evaluating 31 applications from museums across Canada, Zero One Design of Victoria BC congratulates the Vancouver Police Museum on being selected in the Sponsor a Museum program which will upgrade their online presence, collection management system, and website.

<<June 9, 2009. VICTORIA & VANCOUVER BC, CANADA.>> Zero One Design of Victoria, British Columbia, is pleased to announce the Vancouver Police Museum has been selected in their Sponsor a Museum program for 2009. The museum, dedicated to portraying the history of lawlessness and law enforcement in Vancouver will work with Zero One to expand and renew their online presence and collection management system.

The Vancouver Police Museum is already considered a cutting-edge user of technology with an up-to-date blog (www.vancouverpolicemuseum.ca/weblog/), an informative website (www.vancouverpolicemuseum.ca), and the active use of social marketing tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. “We’re thrilled to be selected this year,” said Chris Mathieson, Executive Director of the museum. “This sponsorship will let us continue to find new ways to use technology and take advantage of opportunities we could not afford on our own.”

The Sponsor a Museum program offers one Canadian museum the chance to take their museum—whether it be via their website, online gallery, or collection management tools—to the next level with the assistance, skills and grunt work from the self-confessed museum tech “geeks” at Zero One Design. “We have been working exclusively with museums, galleries and cultural institutions for twelve years, and we enjoy sharing what we’ve learned,” explains David Alexander, CEO of Zero One Design. “The Vancouver Police Museum has an incredibly diverse and eclectic collection. We’re keen to find new ways to share it with the public online.”

Thirty-one applications were received from museums across Canada, wanting to take part in Sponsor a Museum. Each application was reviewed by an independent panel of museum advisors. “Our advisors had a hard time deciding. It seems as if most museums have a website now, but everyone wants to spotlight their collections more effectively online,” notes Alexander. (To support this desire, Zero One is launching an online collection management system for museums, galleries and private collections this fall. For details visit www.arbutuspro.com)

Watch for the final results of the Sponsor a Museum program to be unveiled on both www.vancouverpolicemuseum.ca and www.zeroonedesign.ca in 2010.

About Zero One Design
Founded in 1997, Zero One Design has made a name for itself guiding cultural institutions into the world of new media. Composed of three partners, the company has carved out a niche creating experience-rich websites for the culture and educational sectors that focus on telling the compelling stories that these institutions have to offer. Watch for their launch of a new open source online collection management system for museums this fall. For details visit: www.zeroonedesign.com and www.arbutuspro.com.

About the Vancouver Police Museum
The Vancouver Police Museum is a small non-profit museum dedicated to portraying the history of the Vancouver Police Department. Established in 1983 and operated by the Vancouver Police Historical Society, the museum collects, preserves and interprets the history of the Vancouver Police Department and its context within policing in Vancouver, provides a resource for those examining the role of the Vancouver Police Department across time and across cultures, and provides educational opportunities to explore the science of police work. It is located in the former Coroner’s Courtroom at 240 E. Cordova Street in Vancouver (a designated heritage building) and is open to the public. Visit: www.vancouverpolicemuseum.ca

–end—

Contact:
David Alexander
Principal, Zero One Design
Tel: (250) 885-8665
E-mail: david@zeroonedesign.com

Chris Mathieson
Executive Director, Vancouver Police Museum
Tel: (604) 665-2207
E-mail: chris@vancouverpolicemuseum.ca

Broadcasting sounds cleaner and better organized than it is.

Halloween is always a little crazy around the Vancouver Police Museum; for the last four years we’ve participated in the Haunted Trolley Tour with the Vancouver Trolley Company and the Vancouver Museum. On this program, riders get a bus tour of the city, focusing on some of the city’s most famous murders and hauntings. A walk through Mountain View Cemetery and a visit to the old city morgue (our building) are also big parts of the fun.

These tours run in the evenings from 6:30pm until 11:30pm, so those of us who work those shifts often end up working 14 hour days–our regular eight hour shifts, followed by another six acting as coroners and coroners assistants. When those visitors arrive, we whisk them into the old autopsy suite and run through the process of an autopsy, in significant detail. In 2007, we had sixteen people faint during the fifteen day run of the tour.

Errol keeping watch.

By itself, that would make for a busy Halloween for us, especially since October 31st seems to be the most popular day to take the tour. We see in excess of 400 people come through on the Haunted Tour on that evening alone.

This year, though, we had another reason to be tired–local radio station, The Beat 94.5, asked us if they could broadcast live from our autopsy suite for Halloween morning. (As mentioned previously!) Set-up started at 3:30am so that broadcasting could begin at 6:00am. A psychic was brought in (Madame Zora) to read the energies of the place and we had a great chance to promote ourselves as well. Kid Carson, Nera Arora and Amy Beeman were all here, along with Benjamin the Butler and a few tech crew.

You just can't keep Errol out of a picture.

The radio crew wrapped up at 10:00am, and the tech crew left with all their gear shortly afterwards. From there, we launched into a typical day with school programs and regular visitors. At 5:00pm, we all took a breath, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then launched into the last part of our day: Haunted Trolley. Five hours, twelve trolleys, 506 visitors, and countless fireworks-explosions-in-our-back-lane later, we were finally able to shuffle home and sleep in.

Exhausting, all of it, but another perfect spooky Halloween at the Police Museum. A big thank you to all the staff and volunteers who made it possible to get through October without going insane! (Let’s do it all again next year!)

Of course, to broadcast at 6AM, they’ll need to be here by 3AM to set up; it’s going to be an exhausting morning–at least I don’t have to do Haunted Trolley the night before. (I will be doing it on the 31st, however – a 20 hour day!).

Make sure you tune in on the 31st, or even come down to the museum to meet the hosts in person. We’ll post photos after the event.

On the Coast Interview. (5MB, mp3)

Paul Grant is the National Arts Reporter for CBC Radio based in Vancouver. This interview originally appeared on On The Coast (http://www.cbc.ca/onthecoast/) on Wednesday, July 2, 2008.

I guess that with the high cost of fuel these days, it’s becoming more common to enjoy a so-called “staycation” instead of a vacation. Because of this, Paul wanted to interview us as one of the small, but exciting, attractions in the city. I’m always thrilled when people think of us when they’re doing segments like this…

Update: I’ve now posted the interview on the blog. Follow this link to listen to it.

This story has gained international attention, with an Associated Press news item being published across the US, as well as in the UK, Russia, China and India. Theories abound, with the newscasts suggesting Asian gangsters, plane crashes, a serial killer leaving a signature, or medical students playing a cruel hoax as some of the various possible explanations. Experts in oceanography, botany, forensic taphonomy, entomology and geographic profiling have been contacted for their opinions.

On Thursday, the Police Museum was contacted by CBC News for an historical perspective on this case. I gave a short radio interview that focused on the following questions:

• What’s so compelling about this mystery?
• What are my preferred theories?
• Will this case ever be solved?

The next day, after hearing the CBC interview on the radio, a reporter from CTV got in touch and did their own on-camera interview, focusing on similar themes. (Go here, click on “Friday, June 20th”) and fast-forward to 12:35 to see the segment).

This is, of course, not the first time a foot has washed ashore in the Vancouver area; local lore says that in 1887, a leg (in a boot) washed ashore on False Creek–and it was put on display, in the hopes that someone could identify the owner. A mystery that remains unsolved…

There’s something about stories of this type that tug at people–the “Babes in the Woods” case we have on display is an excellent example. In both cases, there’s no story that fits perfectly, no obvious explanation, no way to “close the circle”. We have a deep-seated need to make sense of our world, to apply a narrative to everything we experience and these kinds of mysteries leave us unsettled and unsatisfied.

Time will tell if investigators will be able to solve this modern mystery; perhaps a explanation will make itself known sometime soon, or perhaps it’ll remain an unusual little footnote in the history of our area. (Pun not intended.)

It’s quite possible that there are now five (and counting) victims of foul play out there–we cannot forget that this is a serious event involving real lives. It sure captures the imagination, though, doesn’t it?