Southern Georgian Bay OPP Const. Michael Brady retired recently after completing 50 years a police officer.
"I started as a teenager and ended as a senior," joked the 70-year-old.
Brady grew up in Tay Township and continues to live there now. He served with the Hamilton Police Service, the Penetanguishene Police Service, the Midland Police Service and finished his career serving 22 years with Southern Georgian Bay OPP in northern Simcoe County.
He was first hired as a cadet in 1973 by the Hamilton Police Service to work in the radio room with the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC).
"It was new for the police, but they didn't even call it a computer," he said.
In 1974, he was promoted to a constable and began working on the road with a senior officer.
"One of the things my coach officer told me was, 'One of the things you have to remember in this business is that the customer is always wrong.' I later realized that's not true, but that was funny," he said.
"There were dangerous times, rewarding times, busy times and lots of humdrum stuff," Brady said of his long career.
In the 1970s, there were a lot more robberies than there is today because it was a cash society, Brady said. In Hamilton, he remembers multiple "bank robberies where firearms were involved, but we made it," he said.
Brady never fired his gun at anyone, but he did have a gun pointed at him. He was called to a home in Hamilton where he and his partner were met by a drunk woman with a gun raised.
"It kinds of scares you, but we settled that without any injuries," he said.
After the incident, his partner went home, but Brady completed his shift.
Brady was never seriously injured during his career, but he has been bitten, kicked, punched, threatened and suffered a few broken fingers.
He came across many troubled people and often offered "fatherly advice."
But, he never knew if any of it made a difference. Then, when he retired on Nov. 1, he received a message from a young woman, who worked at a coffee shop he frequently visited while on duty. She stated that his words of encouragement helped her turn her life around and become a fulsome adult.
"You try and do good and maybe it works," he said.
One time on the street beat on a hot summer day, he came across a man in an electric wheelchair who wasn't moving. He walked up and talked to him and discovered that the chair's battery died. Brady called a wheelchair cab and paid for it because the man didn't have any money.
"Sometimes you are in a position to help," he said.
The happiest times were doing community service.
"I did a lot of community service in schools, in addition to my regular duties, talking to the kids about safety on their bicycles and Halloween. I always enjoyed that."
Brady always marched in uniform at Remembrance Day parades.
"It's always important. It shows respect of veterans."
The saddest times were suffering the loss of colleagues.
The night Tom Coffin was shot in 1996 at the Commodore Hotel in Penetanguishene, Brady was on duty with the Midland Police Service and responded to the call.
"He was killed and he was a friend. That was a sad time," Brady said.
He lost a second colleague when Doug Marshall shot himself in the bathroom at the Southern Georgian Bay OPP detachment in 2012.
"We watched him develop PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), but he took his treatment. We thought he was all better and then he took his life. That was a sad time."
So, what's kept Brady from becoming jaded?
"Living in this world, I never expected things to be perfect. You are going to run into people who are mentally ill, drunk, upset, hate you, hate their wife. I knew all this was coming. I wasn't surprised.
"I read the paper. I see the news. Why would my little part of the world be any different? It's not perfect. I wasn't jaded or upset. This is the world," he said.
Outside of policing, Brady enjoys family life with his wife, Shaunna. He has three children and one grandchild. He's also enjoys working out in a gym in addition to downhill and Nordic skiing and cycling.
He first retired from the Southern Georgian Bay OPP in 2018, when he was 65.
"They asked if I would stay and I said, 'Sure, sign me up. I wanted to do something and I felt pretty good. Then I thought if I stay a little longer, I will make 50 years."
On his last day, his daughter Erinn Leeming, who works in the OPP communications centre, gave him the final "10-7" call over the radio, which means "out of service."
There was a celebration for Brady's retirement at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Penetanguishene last week.
In his speech he said: "It was kind of a sad time to turn everything in, but the OPP, as is its tradition, they took everything from me," he told the reception at the Columbus Hall to roaring laughter.
"Shirts and pants. Fortunately, I had some pants to wear home," he joked.
"I liked it. As hard as it was, as challenging as it was, this job had some interesting moments and a lot of things I'd like to forget," Brady admitted.
"It's hard (to retire), but I'll get used to it," he said.
Brady wants to entice more men and women to get into policing. It's interesting, he explains, stressing no two days are the same.
"It was nice to get into the car and not know what I was going to do that day. Come give it a try. It's not a bad thing. You get a pension and benefits and all that," he said.
