Elias experiences shift work for the first time as he continues his training under the supervision of a coach officer and works towards becoming solo. Amanda reflects on her time as an officer and gives advice to anyone considering the career. The recruiting branch welcomes the newest class of recruits just starting their journey.
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 the nonstop learning of a police officer.
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Rachel I'll welcome back our digital content coordinator, Mark. Hi Mark.
Mark Hey, Rachel. Thanks for having me back for this final episode. So, we're going to check back in with Elias as he transitions from sharing a cruiser with a coach officer to working solo. We'll get him and Amanda to reflect back on their careers a bit so far, and maybe give you some advice for you, the listener.
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Mark And finally, we'll check in with the next class and just see where they're at the beginning of their journey.
Rachel To be a successful police officer, you have to be up for the challenge. There are aspects of this job that can be really stressful and challenging.
Mark Yeah, and I think I agree, I, I think one of the major hurdles about being a police officer, unfortunately, is the shift work. It just it comes with the job. How does our shift work and like, how do you describe that when you're talking to people out there in the community?
Rachel So, the way our rotating 12 hour shifts work is that we work basically for shifts on have five days off, then work a five shifts on, have four days off and then work five shifts on and have five days off. And those blocks of shifts are mixed up between working a day shift and then working a night shift.
Mark Yeah and I've seen Elias kind of go through the process of learning that shift. And he's really nearing the end of being completely done his training. But he's still getting used to that shift schedule. What I learned speaking with other officers is that each one has their own way of coping. Elias is no different.
Elias Yeah. Night shifts, the rotation work. It's hard for me. I never done shift work again. I came from tech, man. Like I was going in with my Nike sneakers. Like pajamas you can wear. It's fine. It's appropriate to come in here, and it's. Straight uniform, ironed and stuff. I know a lot of people say, oh, they can do it, but just really tap into yourself and ask yourself, like, are you actually able to do it?
Like, mine's improving. I've had a system now where, for example, night shift, I have a coffee, which I never drink coffee ever before. I worked at Timmy's for five years, went through university with no coffee. When I became a cop. I drink coffee. It goes with a stereotype. But, yeah, I have a coffee at the beginning of the shift, and then on my lunches, I usually go for a run on night shift and take a shower, and then I start drinking my energy drink, and that takes me till 7 a.m.
Mark So I can imagine. Responding to people's issues day in and day out can also be a bit of a mental grind. What are your what are your thoughts on that?
Rachel Yeah, I mean, people who get into policing are interested in helping people. So, I think, you know, the responding to people's issues day in and day out or kind of what we signed up for. But you do have to make sure you are taking care of yourself in that because we can get, you know, compassion fatigue and, just making sure that you're reaching out to the supports in your own kind of, community or a family, to make sure that you're still taking care of yourself while you're taking care of the community is important.
Mark I think your sentiments definitely shared by others. and Amanda had a slightly different take on the issue. But along the same lines.
Amanda It's it really is true when they say that every day is different. It really is. Even though maybe like to say, for example, the same call over and over, but it's different people. The situations vary. So, you're never bored, that's for sure.
Mark Do you feel that positive every day?
Amanda I wish I could say that I do feel that positive every day. I think it comes in wave, like, what you're talking about is the compassion fatigue. You just have to check yourself and, kind of fill your cup up in other ways, especially, like, for example, last year I did Citizen's Police Academy and seeing how everyone else was so excited to do this job, it made me realize, like and just remember how lucky and appreciative I am to do this.
Mark What can make for not such a great day?
Amanda Just the different personalities, the people that we have to work with. Sometimes it can be said, it can be challenging. People don't always like us. So, just reminding yourself when people are, saying awful things and yelling at us and everything, just not to take it personal. And it can get frustrating sometimes.
Mark Do you do you feel like you're still learning?
Amanda Yes, definitely. Every day is still new. There's so many scenarios that, still, I've never been to. I don't think anyone you could be on this job for 30 years. I don't I still don't believe that you'll know everything. There's so much to, to learn.
Mark I had a neat opportunity to follow your recruiting team as they started giving out job offers to the next class. I thought, what better way to finish off the series than a visit right back to the start.
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Mark On this day, we need to make a half a dozen or so offers. And one of my favorites was Dalia. She had so many nice things to say.
Mikols I'm so excited to bring you into our policing family. I have an entire team around me all smiling because you were successful. Congratulations and welcome to the World Regional Police Service.
Dalia Thank you so much and I truly appreciate all your help throughout the whole process, and for encouraging you to do it now and to not wait. And I'm just really overwhelmed with like, the support and like I'm really, really happy right now.
Mark Our process has changed over the years and it's been a while since you've looked at policing. We've added a lot of different kind of supports during the process. One of those supports was the addition of a recruiting outreach team, and that's you. why don't you tell me a bit about what, you and right now, your partner is Pete – what you do?
Rachel On the outreach team, we're responsible for basically planning all of the recruiting events that the service runs. we travel all over, you know, southern Ontario to different colleges and universities. doing, you know, giving information about Waterloo Regional Police and policing as a career. We also mentor people through the process, which is I think we're the only service who offers that.
So, if people are interested in becoming a police officer or they're getting ready to apply, they can reach out to us and Pete and I will, you know, talk to them one on one about specifically where they're at and kind of what they need to do to prepare, for our process. And then throughout the process, we'll give prep for them for each of the stages.
So, the prep doesn't involve obviously giving answers or questions or anything, but we just make sure they're prepping, you know, they're on the right track with their prep and also just to ease their nerves. Right? It can be a, you know, it's a long, intimidating process. And to have, you know, some kind of connection to the recruiting unit does help people feel more, you know, at ease and comfortable coming into the process.
And what we want is for people to show their true selves in the process and not be kind of consumed with their own nerves. So, that's just a little bit about kind of what we do.
Mark And I think the one of the most recent classes you had almost like 11 or 12 or almost all of the. Yeah, every recruit. So, every recruit you had some kind of interaction with during the process and you kind of, like everyone basically took advantage of, of your help and. Yeah, to their benefit. Right?
Rachel Yeah. I think it was you're right. 11 of the 12 people. And I would say, now, you know, when I see people who are coming to different stages of the process, Pete and I often recognize all their names because we've already been in contact with them, which is really cool.
Mark So Elyse always spoke very highly of the whole recruiting team, kind of from the start to the end of that process. But Dalia had some really good insight into how this, you know, small team really helped her be successful.
Dalia I had the same recruiting officer with me through every single exam, and it was it would put me at ease because he was a familiar face and, Constable Molnar was there every step of the way to help me prep for each interview or exam, and she would give me as much help or advice as she can without giving me too much help.
Dalia She was reaching out to me before and after, or I would reach out after. She would reach out before. And, she was very supportive throughout the whole process. It was long and there was a lot of nerves, but at the end it was very, very smooth. So, Rachel would call me before an interview like before, before my interview in two weeks, and she would ask me first, like questions like, are you nervous?
How's the process so far? Make me a little comfortable with her. And then she would tell me, just what they're looking for, but not specific answers. So with my issues, she explained. And put emphasis on your behaviors, your emotions, your, your process of thinking and a lot of, when you answer your question, why are you answering it in that way?
And so what? That helped me a lot. She would say, if you say this sentence or you say you're feeling this way, so what? Why? And, she also told me that you can't just assume they know things about you. You have to be very specific and very vocal about the whole the whole story or your whole answer.
If I'm talking about something intimidating or scary or a little bit of a situation that got out of control, I can't just assume they know that I'm afraid, or they know that I was a bit anxious about it. I have to go through the whole thing, detail by detail, and it was really important. Obviously, these are things that you would think are very obvious during your exam.
And but when you're when you're sitting there during your exam and you got the jitters and you get, you get a little nervous, you forget things and things slip out of your mind. But I'd always remember Rachel telling me, so what? And the details. And do not assume they know anything about you. And it's a bit difficult because you have the same recruiting officer during every exam, and you would say, but he knows this about me.
He already heard this about me. But then you'd have to you'd have to remind yourself, let's pretend like we're strangers. And I'll start from the beginning.
Mark And specifically, she had, nothing but appreciation about you, Rachel.
Dalia She's been very supportive. She's been there every step of the way. her support and recruitment support and everyone else's support here has been very overwhelming. That sometimes I look back and I get really emotion, all because I couldn't have asked for a better Region to apply and, I really look forward to, you know, becoming part of the family.
And I'm forever grateful for her patience and support.
Mark How important is, preparation in that application process?
Rachel It is very important. So, you know, we give you the information, about how to prepare. We give you the list of the competencies, and it's an applicant's job to do some self-reflection over the last few years of their life to determine, you know, situations or examples where they can demonstrate to us that they have those competencies.
So, if you don't do that preparation, it's going to be a lot harder to go into those interviews, especially the Essential Competencies interview, because it is a behavioral interview. And so, the detail that we need is, is a lot.
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Mark Before we finish off, I thought we check back in with Elyse one more time. I caught up with him while he was doing his notes in a cruiser between calls on a Tuesday night.
Elias All right, all right.
Mark So what's different about yesterday and today, then? Everything that's led up to this moment for a whole year.
Elias Yesterday was my first solo day. It was quite interesting. I got into physical altercation with subjects who were not complying. One of my firsts, honestly. And then one of my calls, my first ever call, also included our ERU unit. Our emergency response team. So and today it's the call screen is loading up. So here we go. One at a time.
Mark At this point he had just been approved to go solo, which means he's officially done all of his training. Did you feel prepared to go solo?
Elias If it feels good because the coach officers, the training department really does prepare you until you're solo. It's definitely nerve wracking because you don't have your coach anymore, but you know that they're only at one phone call away. And any other members of the platoon, we all have our own interests and specializations and type of info that we like.
Some people are really heavy into traffic. Some people are really into drugs Intel. So, it's really nice to have a broad range of, interests that I can call up depending on what my situation is.
Mark Are you happy with your career choice so far?
Elias Yes. So far. Yeah. Every day is different. You have no idea what the next call is, the next minute, what it can be. and I think that's what really this career is all about. It's like that unexpected of what can come next.
Mark Yeah. So shorter term, what's kind of the next two years you would say, what are you really focusing on.
Elias Just developing into a more confident and off like more of a confident officer. Two years. It's not even enough time to really, you know, feel comfortable per se. 3 to 5 years you'll start feeling comfortable for but for the next two is just focusing really hard and, try my best to learn.
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Mark We talked about how the process to apply and the training is pretty involved, but both Amanda and Elias had some great advice for someone just getting started on this journey.
Amanda You're not going to know it all that’s for sure. I think that's the biggest thing is just be, willing to, to learn and accept, feedback and learn from your mistakes. There's so much, I think, for me personally, like when I was in, the chair of being coached, I thought I could never be a coach.
There's so much information to learn. How am I ever going to know at all? And if you just slow it down and take the time, then like, four years later, now I'm a coach and I've. It feels great to be able to be in the reverse role.
Mark So if today you could talk to Amanda on day one, what would you say to her?
Amanda I would say just take, a call at a time, ask for advice. I think this sounds a lot to me, but, like, I think I would say, like, I'd be proud of myself as.
Mark But are you proud of yourself now? Like, you've made it this far?
Amanda I think so, yeah, I think that I'm proud of, I think what I've accomplished over four years and, there's still so much to learn and grow. And I think as long as you take each day wanting to learn from each experience or each mistake, I think it goes a long way.
Mark Any advice for somebody considering this career? Now they they've just come to our website. They're hearing this.
Elias Yeah. So, I some people actually come up to me real life. and they said, oh, yeah, I'm looking to apply. And everything I've heard is a great career. My first question I ask them is you're not doing it for the money, right? And they say, no, be like, good. Because if you do it for the money, you will not enjoy this job.
This is something you want to ask yourself. Is this something that I really want to do? I always just had to remind myself, you've always wanted this. That fake badge that's sitting right near your bed in your living room. It will eventually become real. And you always want to just keep fighting. Keep fighting for it. So honestly, I reminded myself a lot.
Especially like when times were getting tough and I was like, I don't know if I can really do this. You just push through and but again, I'm happy that I kept pushing through because it really did show and prove to me that hard work does pay off.
Rachel That will wrap it up for us for this six-part podcast series. If you haven't already, make sure you check out the website dedicated to becoming a police officer at joinwrps.ca. There you can find a lot of great information about the job, the process, and find ways to get in touch with us. Mark, thank you very much for going out there and bringing back these stories.
Mark Happy to help out.
Rachel On behalf of all of us at the Waterloo Regional Police recruiting team. Thanks for listening.
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.