Stolen police memorial plaque to be replaced with less valuable materials to deter thieves

Waterloo regional police are are in talks with local municipal governments to find ways to deter thieves from stealing ceremonial plaques — including making the plaques out of less-valuable materials.

A plaque honouring a fallen police officer and boy was stolen in Cambridge in June.

The plaque was installed in memory of Const. David Nicholson, the first officer with the Waterloo Regional Police Service to die in the line of duty in August 1998. Nicholson was part of a rescue mission for 12-year-old Mark Gage after the boy went missing while swimming with some friends in the Grand River. 

A community member made a wooden plaque to be displayed at the memorial in the interim.

"That was a creative opportunity for us to consider with municipalities what the future plaque might look like... how we construct and maintain these fixtures moving forward," Police Chief Mark Crowell said.

Crowell says that theft is part of a trend happening across Waterloo region, where plaques are being stolen for valuable scrap metal. A plaque was recently stolen from a monument in Kitchener's Victoria Park in July and one was swiped from in front of the Registry Theatre in downtown Kitchener in June.

"It has given us pause for Waterloo regional police and the municipalities who are impacted to say what material might be used moving forward to ensure that it still provides appropriate recognition of whatever ceremony and whatever the fixture is, but also to not entice the repetition," he said, adding a replacement plaque has been ordered for the Cambridge memorial site.