Sworn Service 1970-1984
Tom served in the Canadian Artillery Regiment for nine years before he joined the Hamilton Police in 1970. He was a certified SCUBA diver and a “Gun Sergeant” in the Army when he applied and certainly was hired in short order. He began on foot patrol of course but the practice at that time was that on Sundays, foot officers were given a cruiser since that was such a quiet day. This incident happened within his first month as a Police Officer.
Tom was sent to an accident on Queen Street after he assured the dispatcher, that he knew how to fill out the form. When he arrived the driver at the scene told him the other driver had left and gone around the corner. His vehicle only had very minor damage. They drove over to where the suspect car was parked. When he got out to write down the licence plate, since the driver was gone, a man yelled at him from a nearby window, “What do you want Copper?”.
Tom asked him to come down and produce his driver’s licence. The man yelled “get fucking lost Copper”. Tom returned to his cruiser to write down the details and consider next steps. As he was doing that, he noticed that the original driver was starting to walk away. Tom asked him what he was doing, and the driver replied that the ‘man’ was pointing a rifle at the cruiser. Tom got out again and the man with a rifle now, yelled “I’m going to blow your fucking head off”. Tom got back in his cruiser and backed away some distance.
He called Dispatch and asked for assistance and explained what had happened. Then every cruiser in the City suddenly showed up, with lights and sirens blazing. They all went into the house, came out with the suspect and the gun and drove away. Tom then looked around for the original driver who also had disappeared. Tom was alone.
Of course, he went into the Station to complete all the necessary reports, but he never did fill out any accident report. That was policing in a world before any Emergency Response Unit. His family saw the headlines in the paper the next day and asked him to quit immediately, but he refused.
Part of the Unit that day including Ian Langden, Jim Swire, ?,
Vince DeMascio, Steve Gal, ?, Frank Vanderzalm
In the early 70’s Tom was designated as a member of the Crowd Management Unit and took part in that specialized training with many other officers at the James Street Armoury.
Tom spent some time in cruisers and then was assigned to the Motorcycle Squad where he obviously enjoyed his work.
This would be 1975 when Regional Policing began. Tom is on the motorcycle and Bob Muir and Roz Niewland are standing
Tom and George Giacinti on motorcycles are assigned to meet Pierre Trudeau, who arrives at the John A MacDonald High School on York Blvd. in a helicopter, accompanied by 2 “Gunships”. Pierre went off somewhere and Tom and George were having coffee in the helicopter with all their new Air Force friends. Pierre comes back early and jumped in the helicopter. Tom’s arm is bumped, and he dropped hot coffee on Pierre’s lap. Everyone was most apologetic. Pierre returns to Hamilton within a year and George and Tom are on foot and just saluting. Pierre turns out of his procession line and addresses Tom directly and jokes with him to be careful with his coffee today!
In 1976 the Police Department had decided to form a Tactical Team to deal with dangerous situations in a more professional manner and Tom was one of those people selected to be part of the new Tactical Emergency Assault Men (TEAM), partially because he had previous military experience. He was already qualified as an Acting Sergeant and so they made him a TEAM Leader. The plan at this time was to spread trained officers on different shifts and let them continue to work on patrol. If an emergency situation arose, those on duty would be activated and others would be called into work from their home. Today of course, the ERU is a standalone unite without other duties.
In August 1977, Tom was sent with others to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Academy in West Virginia. They were pitted against teams from a Sniper Team in Quebec, a Team from Strategic Air Command in Colorado and a Team of U.S. Army Rangers based in Florida.
Tom tells me that in the movie “Silence of the Lambs” there are signs shown that read “Hurt, Agony, Pain”. He says those signs really exist and they are posted at the Academy. They did sniper-training, rappelling from 45’ Roofs, various dynamic entries into buildings and planes, endurance swimming and they ran obstacle courses. Everyone was in ‘agony’ at the end of the day.
In September 1977, Tom was part of the TEAM that rescued some injured officers who had been hit by sniper fire on West Avenue near Main Street. During the incident the sniper, James “Wench” Kellett was shot to death.
It was during this incident that a number of helicopters were hired by different news agencies. They began to circle the crime scene and cause disruptions. Tom was able to declare the area a “No Fly” zone through the Hamilton Airport.
During that incident 3 officers were pinned behind their cruisers after being injured, but still in the line of fire. The Incident Commander borrowed a Brinks Truck to rescue those officers. Kellett fired upon the rescue unit and TEAM members fired back and killed him. During that exchange of fire, Tom and his group were affecting a ‘dynamic entry’ to the apartment from the rear. When they gained entry, they discovered Kellett was dead, and the apartment was on fire.
In 1978 he was designated as an instructor on the newly issued PR24. He then trained several classes of Hamilton Police and also the entire Port Elgin and Southhampton Police Departments. At around the same time he was assisting Bob Pope with Firearms Training. Bob was the Force Armorer, but he needed someone else to relieve him for holidays or other issues. Tom had a key to the range in Ancaster, so he became the assistant Armorer. He enjoyed helping officers to learn to use their weapons in an era when firearms training was just becoming mandatory. When he went into plainclothes this part of his job was ended.
He was assigned the task of designing the first TEAM Truck. He created a design that would contain all the specialized equipment they would need. His design was accepted, and they purchased a new vehicle and had all the compartments he wanted built into it. The vehicle was equipped with a siren which was completely new for Hamilton Police. When not required for an emergency, this new truck was driven on patrol with two TEAM members answering calls.
Tom next designed a “Battering Ram” or “Universal Key” that he believes is still in use today. He was able to get a friend from Dofasco to create this ram for the TEAM.
Tom next designed a “Battering Ram” or “Universal Key” that he believes is still in use today. He was able to get a friend from Dofasco to create this ram for the TEAM.
TEAM was activated on several gun related calls. He and Tom Marlor participated in two raids on the Red Devils Motorcycle Club House on Beach Blvd, in support of the Vice/Drugs Unit.
Command decided that there was a need to have some TEAM members trained as Bomb Technicians since they had taken over that responsibility from Identification. Five TEAM members were sent to Canadian Forces Base Borden for six weeks of military training. People on this course arrived from all around the world, including Australia. During that course they were put into groups of two and given active Explosive Torpedoes. They were required to dig a hole, put the bomb in the hole and explode it from a safe distance with a detonator.
After that Tom responded to several Bomb Calls. At the time it was not well known but some Traditional Organized Crime figures and Motorcycle Gang Members had joined forces in a widespread attempt to extort money from local businesses. There were a number of bombings resulting from this arrangement.
On 27 July 1981 Tom was working in the role of Acting Sergeant. A uniformed constable was sent to 2nd Road West in Stoney Creek where 2 boxes of old dynamite had been found buried. Tom and his TEAM had to dig them up, which was extraordinarily dangerous, because it was all covered in crystallized nitroglycerin. They were able to recover the material and take it to a quarry. Then they had to place it all individually beside each other and set fire to everything. Fire destroyed everything them without an explosion. That took a lot of time and great expertise. During this incident, he and his other TEAM members all absorbed nitroglycerin through their skin and suffered from “nitro headaches” later.
It was at the bakery that Tom used the existing Police water cannon, while working with Bruce Graham. The cannon should have completely disrupted the bomb however on this occasion all it did was split the bomb into what turned out to be two very real and active bombs, with wiring intact.
Tom dressed in the Service Bomb Suit and discovered the problem. He used his crimper device and disarmed both sides of the bomb. He believes that he is one of only two bomb technicians in Canada to disarm a live bomb.
Ron Caton, Stew Jones, Tom Marlor,
Tom Standen, Bruce Graham
Some of Tom’s experiences included using a portable X-ray machine that the Service had recently purchased. He dealt with a fake bomb in a Mail-Box and a bombing on Bunker Hill in November of 1979. He also went to a bombing at Grand Prix Motors on King Street East and an attempted bombing at La Favorita Bakery on Concession St on July 3, 1980.
The equipment and evidence that the criminals used to create those bombs (batteries and a watch) and recovered by Tom were very useful. Sgt. Ken Robertson (later Chief), and a Joint Forces Unit, were able to trace the watches to a bomb maker in Lowbanks, Ontario. They were able to arrest and convict five people including outlaw motorcycle gang members and Tony Musitano from traditional organized crime, with Conspiracy and Extortion.
Years later in the parking lot at Limeridge Mall, Tony Musitano recognized Tom and congratulated him on his investigation. He said you were on the stand for two days and cross-examined by five lawyers and you remained a strong witness.
As a result of this incident Tom knew of course, that they needed a better water cannon. He designed a new and stronger cannon and again took his design to a friend at Dofasco. They made his new cannon out of stainless steel and he believes the Hamilton ERU still uses that device to disrupt bombs. Superintendent George Frid took those plans for the water cannon and distributed them to all police agencies in Canada.
In 1979, Tom was finally transferred out of the ERU and into the Criminal Investigations Division. In 1981 however, a group of outlaw motorcycle gang members were on their way to place a bomb at the home of a witness who was willing to testify against them. Unfortunately, they only managed to blow themselves up inside their own Van while driving on Garth Street near Garrow.
Tom heard the explosion from his home, only two blocks away and drove to the scene. He found smoldering body parts in the middle of a city street before he reached the scene. Some body parts were also found on the roof of a nearby school.
Tom attended the autopsy of the two dead men and helped direct the pathologist to locate parts of the bomb, that were needed to complete the bomb reconstruction.
In 1981 and 1982 Tom was a guest instructor at the Canadian Police College in Ottawa where he taught the Police Explosives Technicians Validation Courses.
Tom then transferred into the Juvenile Section. He did have some success there but became frustrated with the work. He resigned from the Service and founded his own private security company.
He is now enjoying retirement.
By Dave Bowen, Retired Inspector, Hamilton Police Service