Coming into a new community is always a daunting prospect, especially during COVID-19, but it’s something that the 100 Mile RCMP’s newest Constable, Richard Fraser, was happy to do.
Fraser first arrived in 100 Mile House around the start of March, just before COVID-19 lockdown was put in place across the province.
Protecting people and ensuring their safety has always been something that’s been important to Fraser, ever since he was a young boy growing up in Kelowna. When he was unable to enter policing as a young man in the 80s and 90s, Fraser instead joined the army and served for 20 plus years, serving overseas, before retiring from the service.
In the middle of his life, he decided to pursue his earlier dream of being a police officer after someone told him he couldn’t do it to which he replied: “watch me.” Shortly afterwards he joined the RCMP and has since been stationed in the Chilliwack area and has primarily worked in the lower mainland, up until this point.
“A few years ago I decided that I wanted to join the RCMP, something I always wanted to do as a kid, so I wrote the test and here I am,” Fraser said. “(What attracted me) was more or less helping people that couldn’t help themselves.”
Helping people is the most important aspect of his job and the most rewarding. Fraser said he had two former drug users that came back to him later on in life to tell him he helped save their lives when he helped them out.
While it’s not a frequent occurrence, whenever someone does express their appreciation to the police it’s always a good feeling he said. Either way, he just enjoys ensuring that the community he lives in enjoys peace and harmony, at the end of the day.
Fraser said that an important part of keeping a community safe is being present and out in the community so that those who may be contemplating crime will think twice knowing the RCMP is there.
Now 50 years old, Fraser said even in the few short months he’s been in 100 Mile House he’s come to love the community. Even during the pandemic, he said that he finds people are always smiling at one another and saying hello which had been very endearing. Fraser also likes the fact that the community likes the local police force, which is heartening to see as the RCMP does the best they can for them.
“Before I came up here to work, I came up here camping and I just was in the community and needed some help and somebody without even batting an eye helped me out,” Fraser said. “It was very much appreciated and my wife liked the area and I really love the warm feeling (of this town.)”
Fraser hopes to stay in 100 Mile House for as long as he can because he likes the area and hopes to retire here one day. The sunshine, open-air, boating, fishing and hunting available are also pluses towards that, in his opinion.
“I’m just here to make sure that everybody obeys the law. I do the best I can and I help people out where I can,” Fraser summarized simply.
newsroom@100milefreepress.net
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.