Mural showcasing Belleville Police history unveiled

On Wednesday, Belleville police unveiled its new mural highlighting 186 years of history.

The mural was created by local artist Chris Bennett.

“It’s definitely one of the biggest (projects) as far as length goes. A lot of history was involved. So it’s definitely one of the bigger projects I’ve done,” Bennett tells Quinte News.

The idea for the mural was started, thanks to an officer, with consultations then conducted between Belleville police and the Quinte Arts Council.

“The overall project took about a month and a half, but it has been booked for about nine months. So this is pretty much about 10 months in the making, but physically it took about a month and a half to create,” Bennett said.

The mural spreads across two hallways within the Belleville Police Services building.

Each letter has art representing an era or a person important to the history of Belleville police.

Bennett says it was important to have each era represented in its own unique way.

“I wanted to make sure that there was an even amount of different visual styles of artwork, from 3d realism to cartoon illustration to graphic design elements that were important,” Bennett said. “I didn’t want it to be all one bland, boring type of style of artwork … so introducing colour and different styles of art.”

Officers at Belleville Police have already taken notice of the mural.

“We’ve had members that are walking down the hallway and they’ll stop,” said Belleville Police Chief Mike Callaghan in a speech before the unveiling. “So you see this great big smile on their face and you know, right there, you hit the mark.”

The mural is not open to the public.

Funds to support the project were taken from the City of Belleville’s Arts and Crafts grant.