On November 2nd I went to the Vancouver Police Department Tactical Training Centre for take your kid to work day. We had a variety of presentations about the Public Safety Unit, Forensics, Emergency Response team, Counter Exploitation Unit, Mounted Unit, Canine Unit, and Use of Force. The forensics presentation was my favourite.  They showed pictures of crime scenes in which we needed to find evidence and talked about the variety of chemicals used to take DNA and develop fingerprints. In the canine and mounted unit, we were able to see the police dogs and horses. For the Use of Force, we learnt about some takedowns and saw someone get tasered. I also really enjoyed the Emergency Response teams presentation where they showed us some of the gear they use in their job and demonstrated how to breach a door. What surprised me the most is that they also let us shoot handguns in the range. The sound was deafening, and the gun shook in your hands.

The police horses                   Seized drugs                         Firing range

What would motivate you to wake up every day to attend work?

The VPD is a vast workplace with a variety of different tasks and specialties. This would motivate me as the job would vary day to day based off the different calls and tasks. We also don’t need to work for 8 hours a day in front of a computer.

What would discourage you from waking up every day to attend work?

While there are interesting aspects of policing there are also dark ones. The job can be grueling and gruesome. Officers described it as “Helping the people who are having the worst day of their life.” There is also a level of risk to the job where there is the chance for unfortunate casualties to occur. In the RCMP there is also a rule where you must switch units every 5 years. This would discourage me to become a police officer because the only unit which truly interests me is forensics.