Elias returns to Waterloo Region for post-Ontario Police College training, receives his badge and completes his first few shifts in the community under the watchful eye of a coach officer. Amanda continues her work in the community, responding to a call that requires a mental health apprehension.
Rachel This is Into the Blue – A podcast about becoming an officer with the Waterloo Regional Police Service.
For each episode, we start with a theme and bring you two perspectives – one from an officer in training and another from an officer in the community. In this episode, it's all about putting all that new knowledge to work out in the community.
Rachel I'll welcome back our digital content coordinator Mark. Hi, Mark.
Mark Hi. Thanks for having me back, Rachel.
Rachel So, what do we have planned for this episode?
Mark So in this episode, we are going to check back in with Elias as he returns home to the region for some local training in his first few shifts on the road with a coach officer. And then we'll join Amanda as she takes on some more calls in the community.
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Mark So just as a quick recap, when you're hired with the service, you start full time with pay, with a group of new officers that we call a class. As a class, you first spend six weeks here in Waterloo Region with our training unit, and then you go to Aylmer, Ontario for police college for 11 weeks, and then you come back for seven additional weeks of local training before you see your first shifts on the road under a coach officer.
Elias has just returned to Waterloo. He's moved back home, comes into work every day to police headquarters for that post Ontario Police College training. OPC wraps up. Is that where your training wraps up?
Elias No no no no. So, we came back to Waterloo and there's post OPC and you come here and you further conduct training of what you learned from OPC. You apply in scenarios. You learn more detailed.
Mark Rachel, how would you describe how training is different for that post? OPC versus the Ontario Police College training?
Rachel So when you're at Ontario Police College, you're learning, the general kind of authorities and rules and, you know, kind of ways of training when you come back to, Waterloo after to do your post Ontario Police College training. It's more specific to Waterloo. So, there's just certain things, certain ways that we do things here that we just kind of tweak the training that's been learned at Ontario Police College to make it, you know, suited to our region.
For example, IRD training, you learn kind of generally at Ontario Police College. And then when you come here, we learn a lot more specifics with regard to training and how we would be responding to those situations.
Mark Yeah. And I think it's fair to say that each service might have a unique way of doing things. They're all doing the same thing. Just maybe they do it slightly differently. I mean, whether that's the software they use in the cruiser or maybe a process even behind something.
Elias The post OPC is different from OPC training because you become to your specific location of what the needs are. How do how do things run out? Waterloo. Every service is different. How they operate. But how is it done at Waterloo? Yes, you went to OPC and they taught you all the generics, the general things, our Waterloo. How does it work?
Then you go back on the road and then you come back for another two weeks of enhanced training, where you even dive deeper now because you got the road experience and they'll chat with you more about different units, different, investigative services that are here that we can start utilizing for calls.
Nat Sound Classroom So we are going to be breaking down each of these today. Okay. Today's the bread and butter.
Mark So I jumped in on one of Elias's post OPC classes. this is the one of them learning more advanced techniques and gaining, a certification and kind of looking for and recognizing impaired drivers.
Nat Sound Classroom Yeah, but very well. Okay. Counting is important too.
Mark It's not only were they building on the basics of OPC, but they were introducing them to the physical tools and processes used here at specific.
Nat Sound Training
Mark This was also another class where recruits learned how to respond to high risk calls. As a team, our instructors built on the basics from Ontario Police College. Teaching them the approach used here at Waterloo. The approach they're learning here now is the same approach that every officer in the rest of our service will use.
Nat Sound
Mark So up and to this point, as a constable in training - you're technically still a civilian. You actually don't. You haven't received your badge yet. that's when this special moment comes in. It's small, but an important ceremony that happens at the end of kind of that post OPC training. it's a few weeks after you get back from Aylmer, Ontario, and it happens before you take your first shifts on the road under the guidance of a shift of a of a coach officer. Practically speaking, it's giving you the police powers granted to you in the Community Safety and Policing Act that ordinary citizens don't necessarily have. It's the tools and authorities you need to do the job.
Elias Once you come back to your service and you complete all the training you, there is a badge ceremony of just you and your classmates and the friends and family, the police chief, all the senior leadership. and there are also some guests I know for ours was very special because that is the same day, Premier Ford was also here with the Solicitor General, and they assisted the service in opening up the new central Division at 200 Frederick Street.
Nat Sound Ceremony I want to congratulate each and every one of you in the highest level of public service. You know, as you go out day in and day out, you serve the public Waterloo region. You're going to have good days.
Mark Rachel, do you remember your badge ceremony?
Rachel I do my badge ceremony was in the gym at headquarters. Very nice, very classy. Yeah. and I remember being really nervous because you have to march and just like your march at, OPC. But this one is with your, you know, only the Waterloo officers. So, it's a smaller group, and I just really didn't want to make a mistake with the marching. Yeah, that's probably what I remember the most about. It was getting handed my badge and being nervous about not making a mistake.
Mark Marching perfect. Sounds like. Yeah. Key important factors about the badge. Like, I think allies would agree with you. I mean, he had an extra layer of being nervous since he had do the speech in front of Premier Ford. but he also felt it was a pretty special experience.
Elias It was an awesome experience because that's truly what you worked so hard for. That was the moment when you receive your badge that it's just an extraordinary feeling. I know for me personally, because I was a class leader of my class, I had to give a speech. And at that time, because Premier Ford was there and Solicitor General, the guy who I used to always watch on YouTube, giving those press conferences about Covid. Now here I am giving a speech in front of him. but it was really cool giving that speech because I truly was on genuinely wholehearted, sharing my feeling about being with this class, of the camaraderie.
Right after that, you get your badge and the badge, that feeling, the medal in your hand. It's like that wallet that has a special badge in there. You're one card and the photo that they use in there. It's the first day that you enter for your background checks photo, so you really see the entire journey of all your hard work unfold right in front of you, which is so awesome.
Mark There's a really specific moment that people always tell me about. it's the moment that you have a quick second to look down, whether it's during your ceremony or right after. And you see that badge in your hand.
Elias Now having that badge and looking down. And I remember the first time feeling the badge, the texture of it. I've always wanted to grow up to be a cop, and here I am with a badge. But, yeah, it's a tremendous feeling. But you just know that this career. Yes, you finish your training and stuff, but it's continuous learning for 30 years. You know, it's not going to stop.
Nat Sound Ceremony Once again, thank you for being a part of our ceremony today. Let's have a final round of applause for class.
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Elias And now after this, I would go and set up the car. So internal checks make sure nothing was left from previous shift. And then check lights, sirens. make sure the car's up to par to be on the road in the backseat.
Mark Generally, within a week of that badge ceremony, you're walking into the division for your first shift out in the community with a coach officer. Rachel, how would you kind of describe the role of that, that coach officer?
Rachel your coach officers, it's really one of your first mentors within the police service. A coach officer is someone that you're going to ride with for about three months. And when you first start with that coach, officer, they're really showing you everything that they're doing on a call. You're kind of sitting in the passenger seat and, you know, you get to observe.
You have learned a lot of information, but you're kind of seeing it play out in real life, which is really important. and then gradually you switch roles and you become more of the primary officer, you know, talking to everybody at the calls and, and taking the lead and your coach officers there as a support to make sure you're making the right decisions and to be there, obviously, for officer safety as well.
So, it's really ever been really kind of, you know, develops a very close relationship with their coach officer because you are going through, you know, a few months together writing 12 hour shifts, you really get to know each other. And you are, you know, relying on this person to kind of guide and mold you for you as a police officer. As you kind of find your, your feet as a police officer as you are going to be because we're all, you know, we all are a little bit different.
Elias So right now we're in the Dover basement of like the station. And then we're going to enter the parking garage to grab our cruiser. Thank you. Oh, within a week after you receive your badge, your, your divisions, and you're out there on the road.
Mark What's the feeling at that point?
Elias Oh, the feeling I remember going down the first time. before you actually go, you get to meet your platoon. You go out for a briefing, in the morning, and you meet your platoon mates, your staff sergeant and your sergeants, and you bring donuts and coffees. They'll love it. it's a good impression. And so the first time, while you're with your coaching officer, you're in the passenger seat. But it was good. I do remember it was sunny, and I'm like, oh, I got to bring up the shades coming out of this. I had a really good coach who's now a detective. Learned a lot from him. And I remember just saying that, actually, I did actually say that to him. I was like, wow, I can't believe, like, we're just rolling out right now.
Nat Sound Speaker You guys know Mercury. Tell these guys here and we ride along. I guess if you haven't figured that out, Marks was Marks going out with Corey and Eli.
Mark I joined Elias and his coach officer on one of his early shifts, just to check to see how it was going. I think what surprised me the most, that is someone being coached. You're being thrown right into the calls. if it comes up in your area that you're responsible for, you're probably going. For a new officer, there's really a lot to think about.
Nat Sound
Elias Yeah. So, when you're responding to a call and you're going there whether it's based on priority. So sometimes it's a high call where you don't have much time to think you're going. Lights and sirens. You're looking at the road pedestrians right. Rules of the road. You're stopping. Make sure everyone making sure we arrive safe. Because if we drive safe then all the resources has to come to us and we don't want it to for one, right?
Mark Remember, this isn't a scenario-based training anymore. This is real issues faced by real members of the community. When a lie shows up, there is nothing about him that says he's in training. They're looking at you as a real officer, looking for solutions just as it would for any other officer. As a seasoned officer has been through a lot and probably has some routine with their approaches and a lot of applicable knowledge right at hand but it's different for Elias. Every call is testing his training and his knowledge.
Nat Sound in Cruiser for Traffic Stop
Elias So going there. You always want to think about what could my authority be here. What type of situation am I going in. And you thinking about that? You're actually thinking of your training throughout what happened since day one. What are the police authorities? If I'm looking at a vehicle in front of me and the camera picks up, suspended driver. Okay, so we're going to pull this guy over if it is the same registered owner driving the car who is suspended for what's my arrest authority? What's my authorities? What? What can I do if it's not? If the driver is not the registered owner, then what do I do? Right. So, you always want to think about that, or.
I know we responded to a call, for a prowler near the University District. What's our authority of searching houses? If we think he's in there, you're constantly reverting back to your training. Whether you're thinking about it, whether you're in the call or you're arresting someone or you're searching someone. What are the different safety mechanics? You need to make sure there's no weapons, no escape evidence, tamper as well.
You all that's going in you and yeah, you're with the coach. But the end of the day, the more that you're progressing in your training go on the road, the more they're going to be taking steps back to ensure you can do this on your own when you're officially signed off.
Nat Sound Fire Response
Mark If you're only understanding of police comes from TV and what you see in the movies, you might be thinking a police officer is all action all the time. While any situation could turn into a dynamic situation at a moment's notice, by and large there's quite a spread on the work you're going to be required to do as an officer.
Elias So remember, on New Year's Day, actually, New Year's Day Mark New Year's Day. It was cold. And that's when the snow finally hit and stuff. Right? It missed Christmas. We responded to a domestic call and, the subject was actually still in the house. The victim, the wife, she escaped, and she went to a place of safety in which where she called us from.
But because of the nature of the call and we knew he was in there, there wasn't a warrant, for anyone was going to be executed. by that intimate partner violence, team unit here. we had to make sure we watched the house to ensure he doesn't escape. And we're making attempts for call out for arrests and stuff. Nothing's being responded to.
And I remember that was a very eye opening experience where that same night, I went to buy thermal gear, to wear under my uniform. So not many times where an arrest is made or you're chasing someone down. Sometimes you just have to literally sit there and watch.
Mark There are a few moments of his first shifts that stick out for Elias, and one which is similar for a lot of officers, was his first arrest.
Elias You know, at OPC and at Waterloo training, you train a lot of how to apply your cuffs, your handcuffs. When you are arresting, you're taking someone's liberty away, like when you're putting them on. Sometimes it's, you know, people are they don't want those cuffs on and sometimes they're cooperative. I had a guy who was kind of in the middle, he was verbally arguing a lot, but he was cooperative with putting his hands behind his back.
But I remember taking out my handcuffs, and I was I was actually shaking when it was cold, but two I was just shaking because I'm like, okay, you're double checking everything. But when you apply those cuffs and you, you know, you safety lock it and everything, you're like.
Nat Sound
Mark One thing I noticed while riding with Elias was how much variation in call types that came in. For the most part, the calls you are assigned start with a phone call from the community. An officer could be responding to a very calm call one minute and then a chaotic call the next. Rachel, when you have to paint a picture of the types of call for service that the road sees, how would you say that mix breaks down? And how is that different than, you know, the public's perception of the job?
Rachel Yeah. I mean, I would agree there is a huge variety of calls for service that are happening. And I think sometimes the public thinks there's only maybe 1 or 2 types of things that we do. Maybe we're pulling people over, you know, for traffic stuff or, you know, responding to assaults. But, you know, we're going to domestic calls, we're going to neighbor disputes, we're going to youth complaints. We're going to animal complaints, we're going to robberies. And it's such a vast variety of jobs of, calls that are happening.
And you're right, you could go from a very calm, you know, check well-being call where you're just checking on somebody who's fine, but you just kind of have to establish that. And then the next minute you're going to, you know, hold up alarm right where which is a little more, high priority.
So it's you really have to be very flexible when you're on the road. And because you never know what next call you're going to get.
Mark And I think if you see a chaotic scene in the in the community, police are probably the ones responding, and often with little information and it's, it's a time in some of these people's lives where they're really experiencing the worst day of their life, and you're just, they're showing up. There are approaches that officers are trained to use, and some of these really difficult situations.
Nat Sound Hello. What's up? This is going to be a trust thing. You want to trust that you're going to.
Elias You want there's a lot of things our PC that we learn is hooks and triggers. you often want to start off with a conversation of what was going on, ask them how they're doing. Depends if the environment allows you to do so. Obviously as well. Right. Sometimes they're in the middle of a psychosis and they're just being extremely angry or I just had my first excited delirium episode, of an individual. And we're trying to restrain him, and you can see that he's talking to us. He doesn't want to do this, but his body is like just a he can't control it. That was one where you don't have time to do a conversation or report.
Whereas another call of mine where we went and this person is known to be violent. That's on the record. Right. So, dispatch will try to give us hints and tips off before going to the call, as much information they can provide us for that time. But you which I will, we were very empathetic. We just wanted to build rapport with him, to chat with him. You want to understand what they're going through.
Mark Riding with Amanda over the course of a few shift, it was pretty apparent that many calls for service are definitely driven by some type of underlying mental health concern on this, right along with Amanda, we were dispatched to a call where the patient was expressing that they wanted to see a doctor. Like basically as soon as we arrived.
Nat Sound You want to go to the hospital? I think it's going to be the right choice. All right, I'm ready. Yeah. I think right now you'll be safe there. Those for the night.
Amanda I'll bring you up to the hospital then. And then we'll go up there and then you can talk to. We have Canadian mental health on the way as well, because I know when you're with them.
Mark You're stepping out of the cruiser and you're walking up to the front door. What are some of the things that you're maybe going to prioritize, or you're going to talk to them about when you're walking? They know you're looking for stuff like that.
Amanda Yeah. So especially for mental health calls, there's certain questions and information that we need, especially want to make sure that they're not a danger to themselves or other people. So, for apprehending someone, it's typically an immediate danger to themselves or other people. So, for example, this guy did have a plan, so he was feeling suicidal. He did have a plan.
And he said that he felt like he was going to act on it. So typically, if someone doesn't, if we don't feel that there's an immediate risk, we can get Canadian mental health to attend and speak with them. But in this situation, because he had a plan and was feeling suicidal, we ended up taking him to the hospital.
Mark So in this situation, the officers had a conversation with the patient to try and understand his feelings and where he was coming from. The officers also spoke with others around him to help try to build that picture, to decide if he should be apprehended under the Mental Health Act. that conversation, I think, can really be a balancing act.
Amanda One, just making sure that they're okay if they're willing to talk to us. and then just trying to stay, calm and approachable. So that they can feel comfortable to answer those questions because they can be difficult and awkward questions to ask is especially surrounding mental health.
Mark Finally, I think what I learned, is that it's important to understand that no two calls, subjects, or patients even in this situation, are the same that each call requires its own unique approach, that's often learned through a combination of training, but also that on the job experience that Elias is kind of just going through right now.
Rachel Yeah, I think you have to make sure that you're going into every call without any assumptions on the people involved or the situation, because you really don't know until you get there and you actually start listening. Listening is the most important thing, right? To listen to what's actually going on for those people and so that you can determine what the best approach is to help, you know, help whatever, mediate or solve their problem or help them, whatever the call kind of requires.
Rachel We will leave Amanda and Elias there for now, and we'll check back in with them in the next episode. Picking up with Elias as he ventures out for his first solo shift and officially Marks the end of his training as a new officer. Mark, thanks for joining me. I'm really looking forward to what's coming up next.
Mark Perfect. We'll do this one more time.
Jen Into the Blue is production by the Waterloo Regional Police Service. It is hosted by Rachel Molnar and produced, reported and edited by Mark Araujo. Supervising director is Cherri Greeno.
Special thank you to the entire dedicated training team at the Ontario Police College, as well as the WRPS Training and Education Branch – without their collaboration this production would not be possible.