A few of us have fading memories of white-gloved cops like Const. Gilles Martin here; they had a great sense of showbiz.
Traffic cops and their whistles would be deployed to all kinds of major intersections -- drivers obeyed them, and nobody "blocked the box" in those days. Anywayze, this picture was taken during that underwhelming and rainy Olympic summer in Quebec's true annus horribilus, 1976.
Now the question: including Constable Gilles here, how many white-capped cops were temporarily assigned to traffic-directing around the beloved stadium site?
a) 312
b) 46
c) 127
d) 7
e) 7,007
Answer: Yes, the answer is c). There were 127 police assigned to traffic detail around the Olympic neighbourhood. Here's the story from The Star.
Olympic traffic 'no problem'
Athletes brighten cop's job
By Victor Riding
The Montreal Star
Friday 16 July 1976, Page 8
Millions of harried North American motorists face rush-hour traffic twice a day and often arrive home on the brink of a nervous breakdown, searching for a bottle of tranquilizers.
But how about the traffic officer who stands in the middle of a busy intersection attempting to keep the flow of traffic moving while he dances and dodges away from speeding cars driven by impatient motorists.
According to veteran MUC police traffic officer Gilles Martin: "Traffic duty isn't as bad as it looks. As a matter of fact, I enjoy it more when there is a lot of traffic...it helps pass the time away."
Constable Martin has been directing traffic in the downtown district for six years. Prior to his transfer to the traffic squad, he spent 15 years in a patrol car, often finding himself directing traffic at fires and other emergencies.
Const. Martin is one of 127 policemen assigned to keep cars moving around the east-end Olympic site. He is the longest-serving of four officers respoinsible for the intersection of Viau and Sherbrooke, near the Olympic village.
His arm-waving and whistle-blowing are well-knowon downtown and his antics are likely to attract crowds of amused tourists and athletes at his temporary assignment.
Const. Martin enjoys his new, temporary assignment because he is meeting and talking to many of the Olympic athletes who pass by him on their way from the village to training and competition sites.
"Many of them want to exchange their identification pins for our breast badges. The know they can't and we can't, but they try anyway...the kids are having fun."
He added that many of the athletes cannot speak English or French, "but somehow they let me know they want directions and through sign language I can let them know where to go."
As for handling the expected increase in the volume of traffic around the site, Const. Martin said that should be no problem.
"When you get a new assignment, you study the movements for awhile," he added. "You get to know them and everything works out."
Is it 127? I think there were hundreds of traffic-directors at one time for the city at large because of the the lights which didn't have turn arrows or priority turning. Maybe these and other advances made the traffic cops unnecessary. Montreal once had far more police officers than today probably because so many were needed for traffic-directing. As for the white gloves, I first noticed them in a NFB documentary called Station 10 from around 1973 Wow did they know how to direct traffic back then! With those gloves and the whistles they got everyone's attention. And as for Station 10, it was very cool to see cops patrolling the streets of downtown in their early 70's vehicles including the station wagons which had a dual use as ambulances. Not so cool was to see how much crime they had to deal with back then along with suicide calls and drug overdoses. It was more graphic than any episode of COPS!
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