20 Questions

RNC Const. Geoff Higdon has a front-row seat with the police force.

1 .What is your full name?

Geoffrey Graham Gordon Higdon.

2 .Where and when were you born?

I was born in 1983, July, and I was born in St. John’s.

3 .Where is home for you now?

St. John’s. I’m from Placentia though, from Dunville specifically.

4 .What are you reading at the moment?

I’m not a big reader. The last book that I read though was probably a Dan Brown book. I’m a bit weird — I like some of the conspiracy theory type books. I like a lot of Dan Brown stuff . ... I suck at finishing books. I usually have three or four going.

5 .Who is your favourite author?

It’s probably Dan Brown, and I think it’s because his writing is easy, because I’m not an advanced reader when it comes to novels, and I’ve kind of faithfully read all his books.

6 .What shows are you watching now?

I’m caught up to date on “Veep.” ... But usually you’ll find me watching some sort of cop show like “Bosch,” “The Wire.” I’m more of a Netflix kind of guy. I don’t like watching commercials, so if I can PVR it and watch it later, I will, and I’ll mass consume it. I like a lot of the older period pieces.

7 .What are your favourite shows of all time?

It’s probably a tie between “Entourage” and “The Wire.” Totally two different shows, both HBO, and both kind of more realistic. I think “The Wire” gives people who watch it a more realistic expectation of what police actually do. In real life, a warrant isn’t produced and approved and executed in 30 minutes. In “The Wire,” it’s like a whole season. It’s a very well done show.

(Higdon later adds “House of Cards” to this list).

8 .If your life was a TV show, what genre would it be?

Absolutely a comedy. I don’t know if people are laughing with me most of the time or laughing at me, but I usually have people laughing around me. I think that’s my coping mechanism in life. When it comes to either good times or bad times, I usually try to be the guy that keeps people smiling or laughing. I know when my father passed away this winter, at the wake — it could be a sad thing or it could be a time of celebrate someone’s life, and for me, in my family, I was the one who kind of had people smiling and telling jokes about dad and things like that. … You can’t take life too seriously, because you’ll never get through it in one piece. In policing we see a lot of rough stuff. You deal with a lot of difficult situations. Not so much me now in a media role. Although media can be pretty difficult — sometimes I want to cry. I kid, I kid. Sometimes the media are bigger bullies than the public (laughs).

I think laughter is the best medicine, and that’s my philosophy.

9 .What do you listen to when you’re driving?

There’s usually three or four albums . ... Kings of Leon, Coldplay, U2, Hey Rosetta. Those are my go-tos.

10 .What’s the best part of your job?

I find it really cool to interact with every section within the RNC. When you’re in any one particular section, while you do crossover and work with other sections on some files, you don’t have a really good understanding of what everyone else is doing. Being a police officer, you have the flexibility throughout your career to move around, but this is probably the one job that allows you to kind of get a front row seat to what everyone is doing, because you’re actively involved in patrol, in criminal investigations, some intelligence files. The good, the bad and the ugly —that’s the part that I think attracts me most to the media, because you’ll actually learn a lot about being a police officer or other roles of being a police officer in doing this.

11 .What’s the hardest part of your job?

Sometimes deadlines, I think. Trying to find information quickly. It’s always trying to balance the media wanting to know information, but then of course either trying to find the information for them or trying to balance how much information that we can release. It’s not a matter of what we want or don’t want to release, but a lot of times certain amounts of information released can actually impact positively or negatively, an investigation so we certainly have to be very in control of that.

12 .What hobbies do you have?

I’m a traveller. Any of my friends know I’m an obsessive traveller and planner. That’s probably my biggest thing. I’m a bit of a foodie, so I like going to all the local spots, checking out new restaurants, that type of thing. I enjoy going to the gym. I’ve got a couple of dogs, so taking them for walks, hikes, things like that.

13 .Do you have a hero?

I don’t really have a hero. There’s lots of fictitious superheroes I guess I enjoy, but I don’t really have anyone I look up to, any celebrities or anything like that. I look at politicians and how good they are at their job, and I consider them — not my hero, but I look up to them. You look at Barack Obama, for example, the way he’s able to connect with people, or Justin Trudeau has done a really good job. Whether you agree with his politics is a totally separate thing, but just the way he’s able to get people to gravitate towards him and his ideas. I like the techniques that he uses.

14 . If you could have lunch with one person, living or deceased, who would it be?

I think it would be really cool to have lunch at the White House with President Barack Obama . ... I’ve always had this thing for politics and history, and I think it would be really neat to actually sit down and have a chat with Barack Obama, because I think that it wouldn’t be a very formal conversation. I think it would be a bit of a laugh. I think he’d be really level headed.

15 .What would you do if you won the lottery?

If I won $10 million, I would travel the world. I know everyone says that, but I would legitimately travel the world forever. I would basically make sure I dipped back through Canada once every six months, but there are so many places I want to see.

16 .What are three places you’d love to visit?

Egypt — the pyramids — Greece and the Maldives. We do a lot of the places I want to see. We’ve done Australia. On my bucket list was to see Carnaval, so we went in February to Brazil and saw Carnaval, and did Macchu Picchu right after. Once every couple of years we go all out, go on this big, crazy faraway trip.

17 .What would you say is your favourite destination so far?

I love Australia. I would live in Australia in a heartbeat. As a police officer in Australia it would be interesting, because here we deal with moose complaints; there I would imagine they deal with snake complaints. I don’t think I could deal with snakes as a call. I would just be like, “Sorry, I’m on my lunch.”

18 .What’s your favourite restaurant in St. John’s?

Gypsy Tea Room is actually one of my favourite spots. But I suspect that when the Bier Markt opens that might be my new favourite, even though it’s semi a chain.

19 .What’s your favourite place in Newfoundland and Labrador?

The west coast of the province is very beautiful . ... I find every time I drive through the Humber Valley there, it’s just absolutely breathtaking, and it never gets old. I’m like a kid looking out a window at the mountains and stuff, and I really enjoy that. But then there’s places like the Port Rexton area, Trinity — that area also never gets old . ... Even though I grew up around the bay I do enjoy living in the city, but I love getting out of it on day trips.

20 .What do you think is the biggest challenge for the province right now?

I think the biggest challenge for the province right now is probably overcoming some financial difficulties that a lot of people are going to be in, and to come out stronger for it. I think that Newfoundlanders, historically — and Canadians, but definitely Newfoundlanders and Labradorians — have been through a lot over the years, and I think that we always come out stronger. So hopefully that’s the biggest challenge for people is going to be to keep their spirits high, and remembering that this province is big on community and trying to look after one another and keep level headed.