Police officers in Black Diamond’s early years were kept busy with dogs, drunks and speeding motorists, according to town history. Black Diamond boasted a police station from 1946 to 1967, according to Town records, with several officers taking post in what was a combined police and village office for eight of those years. In 1929, R.C. Flathers was granted the contract to build a 16-by-20-foot village office, costing $225.25, on property owned by Mart Hovis. The building then moved to a village-owned lot on First Street East and later to Government Road, on property owned by John Blakeman. “It was one of the original buildings in Black Diamond way back in the day,” said Shelley Broadley, planning and economic development assistant. In those early years, Black Diamond boasted a population of more than 1,000 residents. Many were oilfield workers and their families living in shacks and tents due to the discovery of oil and gas in neighbouring Turner Valley in 1914. An addition was put on the village office in 1946 to house a police station, built by Hislop Construction at a cost of $1,600. A toilet was also added behind the building, costing $75. The building served a dual purpose until the summer of 1954, during which time the village office moved to a larger facility on Government Road, near the post office, which was previously occupied by Calgary Power. “There was so much history with that building with it being the original town office and where the police station was located,” said Broadley. “I don’t think a lot of people know the history of the police force. It’s part of our culture. They weren’t just trying to chase down bad guys, they helped people every day.” Policing in Black Diamond was part time, with either a policeman or night watchman hired to assist the neighbouring Turner Valley RCMP department. Police staff was a revolving door in Black Diamond, starting with Joe Johns in 1929, who dealt mostly with dogs and bootleggers. Early in 1930, Black Diamond council hired a policeman who became more of a problem than the dogs, according to Turner Valley oilfields history book, In the Light of the Flares. When the municipal administrator took over the man was fired. In 1946, a police office and cell was added to the building and James Shearer became the magistrate. Two years later, George Baird was hired as night watchman. Later that year he also became the Village secretary-treasurer. When the Turner Valley RCMP detachment closed in 1954, the Village hired Baird as the full-time constable. “The boom slowed everything down and the population dwindled a bit from what it was before,” said Broadley of the RCMP detachment closure. “They were trying to move the police service back to Okotoks because they didn’t see a need, from what I understand, but then they realized there was a need.” Many of the issues officers in Black Diamond faced around that time was dogs, drunks and speeding motorists, according to In the Light of the Flares. Following Baird’s resignation, Finley Judson took over as constable. The constable and secretary treasurer shared a phone that sat on a swinging door between the two offices. The police station consisted of a small room in the back with no windows or outside doors, where 18-gallon garbage pails were stored to sell to residents. One day while Judson attempted to incarcerate three inebriated people, two women and a man, one of the women ran screaming through the office into the small room, crashing into pails and cussing. She sobered up quickly and proceeded to go into one of the cells. In 1955, Walter Van der Veen, who had served in the elite police corporation in Holland, became constable, followed by Dell Ockey and Peter Henderson in 1956 and Reginald Carkner in 1957. Carkner resigned in 1959 and L. Howard Stevens, who was reportedly especially good at presenting in court cases, took over. Carkner resigned in 1961 and was replaced by Tony Anderson, who became chief constable and was noted for having a good rapport with youth. Anderson obtained a trained police dog, a boon to the town’s policing. After Anderson’s resignation in 1966, Albert Clay and Bill Altwater did the policing until 1967 when the RCMP returned to Turner Valley and took over policing Black Diamond. The Black Diamond police station closed that year, and the building housed various businesses before it was demolished in 2013. A new building was put in its place, which is now the Black Diamond Denture Clinic. A plaque with momentous details about the police station is on the front of the clinic building to keep the history alive.
