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“It struck a chord with our officers,” Parkinson said. “It wasn’t a normal call. It was an emotional time for all once they determined what had happened.”

The identity of couple has remained private — Parkinson describes the husband as “an extremely proud man” who would be mortified by the publicity.

But the chief is proud of his staff and what they did.

“Believe it or not, they don’t do this for the recognition. They did it because it’s what they do best, which is to respond compassionately.”

Parkinson told the police service board about the incident, which in return reported to council. The story was picked up by local media and soon spread around the world. Parkinson says the police service has been contacted with offers of help from as far away as Texas and the United Kingdom. Police aren’t accepting money, but have referred the offers to its victim services unit.

The incident was unusual, but similar situations are increasingly common, Parkinson said, be it drug and alcohol addiction, mental health issues, homelessness or some other social problem.

“The bigger story here is you have a couple in distress in the midst of our community and it’s the police that have to go. It’s not a police matter but it turns into one because there’s no other services out there on a Saturday or a Sunday,” he said.

“It really has caused us to become the social service of choice — we’re here 24/7, 365 days a year. If there’s anything that happens that requires assistance, it seems to roll to us. We don’t oppose intervening, because someone needs to, but our officers are called upon to deal with these things and ensure people are referred on to the proper help.”

bcrawford@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/getBAC