SAINT JOHN POLICE HISTORY - That VW Bug

In the early 1970s I went along on a hunting trip somewhere between Hampton and Norton. I recall that we overnighted in a camp owned by a Saint John police sergeant. I soon forgot his name, but I never forgot the photo he had pinned to the cottage wall. The photo was of city policemen posed with a VW Beetle and I believe he is in the picture. I knew it was cut from either a WEEKEND magazine (a weekly supplement distributed with the Telegraph Journal), or from the STAR WEEKLY. Just today I found the interesting photo online, and I see that it was taken in the parking lot behind the old City Jail.

POLICE BUG - the 1963 VW Beetle once used by the Saint John Police Department, fitted with a Municipal door stencil, a siren and a rotating roof light.

I would be grateful if someone would identify the three policemen for me. I have been doing some writing which will be enhanced by the photo, and the names would be a plus. I know that the VW Bug was driven in parades in the 1960s, but I don't recall ever seeing it in those Loyalist Days Parades we attended in the 1970s.

UPDATE: I am grateful to Alex who sent in the names. Left to right the officers are Sgt. Ken Trainer, Sgt. Morris and Inspector McGrath.

This snapshot of the Saint John Police V.W. Bug was taken in the summer of 1961. The decal or painted logo on the door panel seems more appropriate than the Municipal Crest.

Battered in a Bug (Sept. 27) - The S.J. Police Beetle was a staple of civic parades in Saint John, but longtime Blog reader Paul Cusack has written to point out that it was also a working bug. Paul's uncle Greg Cusack (1923 - 2002) was a police officer in the 1950s and 60s. In the fifties he enjoyed a stint on mounted patrol, and Paul provided a photo taken in Rockwood Park in 1955. At the time of Greg's death the Saint John paper reprised the story of how Officer Cusack was wounded in the line of duty, while using the Police Beetle on shift. As Paul tells it: "Greg was assaulted by a prisoner who managed to get out of the back seat and hit my uncle with tire chains." The snow chains had lain on the floor, forgotten. The assailant was a "drunken dock worker" Cusack had arrested for stealing. The blows from the chains destroyed the bones in Cusack's hand and he took early retirement with the injury. He chose to wear a glove to conceal the wounds for the rest of his life.

S.J. Police Officer Greg Cusack and Digger at Rockwood Park, 1953.

Paul Cusack, who still lives in the North End, describes his uncle as "a slight man about 6' tall" with a pleasant disposition. He was known to pull stakeout duty and Paul recalls, "Greg even dressed up as a lady to catch a purse snatcher in Rockwood Park! High heals and all !" I don't know if Cusack and the VW beetle are covered in the final volume of The Saint John Police Story. Perhaps a reader can fill me in.