Retired police officer Wayne Cope takes a look back at his time in law enforcement with his new book, Vancouver Blue: A Life Against Crime.
The Tsawwassen resident spent over three decades with the Vancouver Police Department before finishing his career with the Metro Vancouver Transit Police.
“I wrote the book so it would entertaining and give you some insight into what’s really going on out there. I think I’ve done that,” he says.
Cope, 59, spent time in many different roles over the course of his career, working in the patrol and traffic divisions, teaching at the police academy, serving in a tactical surveillance unit as well as working in jails, on the dog squad and in homicide.
“When I first joined the department I made a really specific effort of working as many interesting areas as I could. I just thought it made for a more rewarding career at the end of the day.”
Cope worked in internal affairs during his time with the Transit Police.
“When old policemen sit down they talk to each other about all the things they did. Most of the stuff is really, really entertaining,” he says, discussing why he wanted to write the book. “I thought, if I don’t write this down, first of all nobody would believe it. They usually don’t believe it. Every word in the book is true.”
He says the first two-thirds of the book consist of humorous anecdotes while the latter portion is “pretty serious stuff” and covers seven or eight unsolved homicides he worked on.
Cope also notes there’s a cipher, or puzzle, he wrote on the last page of the book. He’s offering five silver loonies as a reward for solving it.
Vancouver Blue can be found at local bookstores and on Amazon.ca.
