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\n\u2018Blue\u2019 \u2013 as a 20-year-old recruit in 1961.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeceased. Brian might be alive. Deceased, deceased, don\u2019t know, deceased\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Retired cop, Bayfair man Brian Lissette, thumbing an old image from his photo album. A formal group portrait of the 1961 Royal New Zealand Police College 18th recruit wing, section one, at Trentham. The wing\u2019s been ravaged by time. \u201cDeceased, deceased, don\u2019t know\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Lissette\u2019s in the photo of 1961. Second row, sixth from left. Nickname \u2018Blue\u2019, a mop of red waves. Can\u2019t mistake him, even if the hair\u2019s mostly gone now. Like more than half of those cop graduates of 65 years ago. They\u2019re also gone. Just memories.<\/p>\n
\n\u2018Blue\u2019 \u2013 as a 20-year-old recruit in 1961.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappens to us all,\u201d tittered the 85-year-old former Senior Constable, a man hardened by three decades in a police uniform. \u201cWe dealt with a lot of death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lissette would have been aged 20 in the photo, one of 62 fresh faced, graduates on a new adventure. Into the unknown. Civvies off, custodian helmet on.<\/p>\n
Time erased them <\/p>\n
And they swore an oath to \u201cfaithfully serve the Queen, keep the peace, and perform their duty\u201d. Excitement, expectation, and, likely, jitters.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I felt we had let them down a bit.\u201d Because four years ago, Lissette realised the photo had no caption. Faces but no names. Cops without ID. And Lissette could recognise fewer than half of them. Time had erased them from memory. And police history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed we didn\u2019t care.\u201d Sad and disrespectful perhaps. \u201cA formal photo is useless without names,\u201d Lissette said. Names, he suggested, transforms a document into an historical record.<\/p>\n
A puzzle for Lissette is a problem for Rowan Carroll, director of the NZ Police Museum in Porirua. \u201cUnfortunately, photographs of those early wings, before the college moved to Porirua in 1981, hadn\u2019t been collected systematically,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n
She had a photo. And a list of graduate names gleaned from wing records. \u201cBut how do you marry a name to a face if you don\u2019t know the person?\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when an old cop\u2019s instincts kicked in. Retiree Lissette became investigator again, setting about honouring the men of the 18th, putting names to faces, closing a police file that had stayed open for 57 years.<\/p>\n
And he had the time \u2013 because he was at home caring for Jean, his now late wife.<\/p>\n
Friends in dark places<\/p>\n
\u201cI hunted down anyone who might know something. Other old retired cops anywhere, anyone who might know someone who might know something.\u201d Months of inquiring, sifting and sorting. He fired off emails, texts and letters in hope, and scratched around in social media. A photo could pass through several hands for clues, checking and cross checking. Police work. It was like the retired Senior Constable was back in uniform.<\/p>\n
\u201cMade me feel really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
He grew friends in dark places. A Googled name often popped up in a bereavement notice. So he would contact the funeral director who would in turn contact a family. Another \u201cdeceased\u201d, but another name to a face in the puzzle. It was coming together.<\/p>\n
Eventually he had a name for everyone. Even the woman in the front row, who tried to teach him how to type his police reports. But he never got past being a three-fingered keyboard thumper \u2013 \u201cshort connection between brain and fingers\u201d.<\/p>\n
But now, even in death in many cases, the entire 18th recruit wing now lives on in a photograph. Names reconnected with faces. \u201cThe honour and respect they deserve,\u201d Lissette said.<\/p>\n
A blank filled<\/p>\n
There\u2019s even greater reward for Lisette. When inquiries led him to a family, he would send a captioned photograph of the recruit wing. \u201cMany had never seen the photo.\u201d They knew they\u2019d had a policeman in the family. \u201cBut they\u2019d never seen where and when it all began.\u201d Suddenly they\u2019d pop up from beyond the grave in a photo from the 1960s. Families are proud and appreciative. \u201cThey love having that blank filled in.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nBrian Lisette \u2013 an old cop still cracking cases at 85. Photo \/ Kelly O\u2019Hara<\/p>\n
When Carroll arrived at the museum in 2011, the collection wasn\u2019t in great order. \u201cNow we have a great critical mass of information and research tools available, and we receive more than 2000 research inquiries a year.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cBlue\u2019s work has been invaluable, a crucial contribution to preserving police history\u201d.<\/p>\n
But time is against them. There were about 40 recruit wings at Trentham. Two a year. \u201cBut we need to get those done because the people in the photos, and those who can help identify them, are older. Dying,\u201d said Carroll. \u201cWe don\u2019t have much time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c18, 19, 20\u2026.I\u2019ve done about half,\u201d said Lissette, counting them. Cases getting solved, one historic photo at a time, from Lisette\u2019s home computer in Bayfair.<\/p>\n
\u201c??; ??; ??…\u201d <\/p>\n
Like a 1946 portrait of 27 returned servicemen who clambered off a troop ship in Wellington where they swapped army uniforms for police uniforms. \u201cIt gave soldiers an occupation,\u201d said Lissette.<\/p>\n
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\nWing of 1946 \u2013 the ID of 16 of the 27 graduates remains a mystery. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
The portrait\u2019s \u2018back row\u2019 caption identifies George Sutherland, John McTainsh, Victor Coveny, and John Alfred Cromarty. Real people with real names. But then: \u201c??; ??; ??…\u201d \u2013 three groups of poignant, tell-tale question marks. They denote \u201cunable to identify\u201d. Lissette has the names and faces, but he can\u2019t connect them.<\/p>\n
The image is back with the NZ Police Museum, with the legend: \u2018NOT NAMED\u2019 \u2013 a catalogue of 16 of 27 names that cannot be married to a face. So close. But so far. \u201cWork to be done, just not my work.\u201d You can sense his frustration. \u201cI hope someone can fill in the gaps one day,\u201d said Lisette.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the policeman in him \u2013 likes to close the case,\u201d said Carroll. \u201cBut he\u2019s doing an amazing job honouring colleagues who\u2019ve gone before him.\u201d<\/p>\n