Constable Ian McColl was presented with his retirement badge 58 years after leaving the police force.
A presentation was made at the Belleville Police Services Board meeting on Thursday.
Constable McColl joined the Belleville Police Service on April 16, 1956 at the age of 18.
His training was done “in-house” and for the few months of the job, he was not issued a firearm.
In Acting Chief Chris Barry’s report to the board, McColl wore a gun belt with an empty holster packed with newspapers until he was deemed qualified to carry a revolver.
Constable McColl left the police service in 1966 to pursue a career with Ontario Hydro Security.
Acting Chief Barry says this is a great opportunity to get to know the history of the Belleville Police Service.
“I don’t think we’ve done a tremendous job of recording and recognizing our history, and now we have an opportunity to do so,” Barry told media.
“Ian is just this wealth of information. We’re going to sit down with John Lowry, who’s a retired member and is also involved with the Belleville Historical Society. He’s going to be meeting with Ian, and we’re going to be recording a lot of this history and trying to capture it.”
