Five MHPS members attend women police conference

By Jeremy Appel on August 30, 2018.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

Five Medicine Hat police officers were in Calgary this week to attend the 2018 International Association of Women Police Conference.

Seven hundred female police officers came from as far as Kosovo, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel and Ukraine to attend the 56th annual installment.

Keynote speakers were Amanda Lindhout, a journalist, author and kidnapping survivor; Sheldon Kennedy, an advocate and child sexual assault survivor; Chief Jennifer Evans of Peel Regional Police in the Greater Toronto Area; and Caroline Ouellette, an Olympian Canadian hockey gold medalist.

The event also included various seminars on other topics of interest to law enforcement, such as social media and prosecution.

Sgt. Carissa Witkowski told the News a conference of this nature is vital for encouraging women to not see their gender as a barrier to professional success.

“It really made me realize that gender has played way too much of a role in my career, and that women tend to be marginalized into the support services jobs.”

This applies to the police service as any other professions, where women are more likely to advance on the administrative side, as opposed to major crime units.

Witkowski says the Medicine Hat Police Service should undergo a gender bias review, “just as we would do for any sort of inclusiveness,” such as the LGBTQ movement.

“We need to promote and display inclusion, and that inclusion needs to be authentic,” she said. “It’s very easy to say, ‘We support genders equally,'” but it must be backed up by action.”

Witkowski noted the MHPS has never had a female advance to a position higher than sergeant.

Sgt. Darlene Garrecht says the conference was an excellent networking opportunity for female police officers from different cultures and backgrounds.

“Just listening to other people’s stories, it definitely gives you the motivation to be a better leader and inspires you,” said Garrecht.

“We’re pretty fortunate here in Canada. There’s still work to be done, but personally, I’m fortunate in Medicine Hat.”

Policing is a difficult field, regardless of one’s gender, but it is certainly predominantly male, she added.

“Any conference that women go to, we are generally way outnumbered, so to see that many women in that many numbers was amazing,” Garrecht said.

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