CONST. CAMILLE DARR


Const. Camille Darr is following in the footsteps of her father.


“I grew up in a police family, so I always had an interest in it,” said Darr, who took a bit of a scenic route to get there. She first attended college, then got married and started a family, and then went back to school and joined the Medicine Hat Police Force at the age of 27.


Darr worked as a patrol officer for six and a half years, and then switched over to the community safety unit where she worked as the community liaison officer for local elementary schools, and also on education within the community. She rejoined the patrol section this past summer.


“You never know what kind of call you’re going to go to on each day,” said Darr, who said it’s the variety of the job she enjoys most. “You basically have to be prepared for anything to happen. It could be something


as simple as a shoplifting, or a major call where you’re standing outside a house with a tactical team. You never have the same day twice. You have a lot of the same types of calls, but there are always different factors to them that make each call its own individual entity."


A highlight so far in her career was helping children and families within schools, giving children a chance to have positive interactions with the police.


“The amount of things I’ve learned while being within the schools has carried on to patrols basically,” she said.


And she loves it when she’s out in the community and children from the schools recognize her.


While now back in the patrol section, she’s also interested in working in the area of family crimes, or major crimes section.


CONST. BEVERLY KENNEDY


It was a family tragedy that led Const. Beverly Kennedy into policing.


“I wanted to be a police officer probably all of my whole life,” said Kennedy, who grew up in Cape Breton, N.S. When she was in Grade 3, one of her brothers was the victim of a homicide.


“I remember the police officers coming up to my parents' door. That’s a time in my family’s life that I’ll never forget. I’ll forget so many things, but I’ll never forget the police officers coming up to my door and delivering us the bad news,” she said. “Those police officers to this day always keep in contact with my family, to show their support and everything. They became very close.”


“I always said, if I’m privileged enough to be a cop one day, I want to give a family the same feeling they gave me.” And go into policing she did, attending the Atlantic Police Academy and then being recruited by the Medicine Hat police.


For the past six years, she’s been with the patrol unit here, handling the range of calls that come in. She hopes in the future to work in the K-9 unit — usually a male-dominated field — and also one day work up to the major crimes unit.


Kennedy says she enjoys being a frontline officer, being the first one on the scene, and drawing on her own experience, especially for those in distress.


“From my experience I know how they feel,” she said. To this day, she visits a woman who was affected by a sudden death on her anniversary, just to show she’s still thinking of her.


The standards and physical requirements make the job of being a police officer intimidating


Unlike larger police services, Medicine Hat's offers the opportunity to move around to different sections.


“In Medicine Hat we have a little more opportunity that if you’re in a section, and it’s time for a change, you need a new challenge, then you can always move on. It offers that variety.”


And it’s a career that women should pursue if interested, she said.


“I think it takes all different kinds of thinking to do the job,” said Darr — and having women on the force are a part of that.


“I think women in policing are important. If that’s your goal, just go for it.” ❚


STATISTICS


There were only nine women on the force compared to 106 men, according to the MHPS’s 2015 annual report.


As of May 15, 2015 there were 68,777 police officers in Canada, while 28,368 civilians were employed by police services across the country. Of these officers, 14,332 were female — or 20.8 per cent.


The proportion of senior officers who were female has more than doubled in the past decade, from 5.5 per cent in 2005 to 12.4 per cent in 2015, the highest proportion ever recorded.


While women are increasingly sworn police officers, women in police services are most often in civilian positions; 57.3 per cent of women employed by police services were in civilian positions, accounting for 67.8 per cent of civilian personnel. Comparatively, 85.6 per cent of men employed by police services were sworn police officers, while the remaining 14.4 per cent were civilian personnel.


SOUTHLAND VOLKSWAGEN Congratulates


to some women, said Kennedy. As well, it’s still looked upon as being a man’s career.


“When I started here, I was welcomed right away,” she said. It’s the family-like closeness that she especially enjoys about being a member of the force. “Of course we have to prove ourselves, but I think every single person in the police service ... men and women have to prove ourselves.”


And more women are needed on the force, she said, as there are aspects — such as dealing with female prisoners and victims of sexual assault —where having female officers available are helpful.


“If this is what you’re passionate about, then you’re going to be successful,” she said.❚


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