The important work of the Victims Assistance Unit that includes members DWW Athena and Glory, was presented to members of the Medicine Hat Police Commission Wednesday during a public meeting.--HANDOUT PHOTO
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
Members sitting on the Medicine Hat Police Commission heard last year that the city’s Victims Assistance Support unit opened more than 1,200 new files and supported more than 1,000 individuals who suffered trauma due to criminal activities, and learned how many hours of work goes into each individual case.
The unit ensures victims of crime receive professional services by collaborating with community organizations to minimize induced trauma. Support includes providing timely professional support from qualified staff and volunteers.
The unit provides this support for victims of crime from the time of the criminal offence, throughout the criminal justice proceedings as well as after court disposition. In some cases one file can include multiple years of support.
“Each of those files, by my math, requires seven or eight follow-ups. So the work they do is just immense,” said MHPS Insp. Joe West.
Currently the unit of three full-time employees and more than 20 volunteers has more than 600 cases they are currently working on.
“You wouldn’t believe how dedicated a volunteer can be,” explains West. “It’s quite extraordinary and it just speaks of dedication.
“One file could generate follow-up, community support, a couple of visits with one of our service dogs and several appearances in court. So it’s not just the intake of one file. That file generates a lot of work,” said West.
That number translated to more than 15,000 volunteer hours last year. In total the unit supported more than 250 children and responded to more than 100 crisis incidents that included 49 home and hospital visits.
Additionally the unit is still supporting victims from files that date back several years.
“Sometimes we lose sight as police officers, we’ve moved on, and we may have to go to court and give evidence,” explains West. “The Victims Assistants are still providing support to families and individuals two, three years down the road. Just an extraordinary group and they’re teeming with humility.”
Although members and volunteers on the Victims Assistance Support unit often perform their duty outside the public eye, two members of the team, DWW Athena and DWW Glory are the publicly known four-legged members of the unit who are trained to reduce trauma.
DWW stands for Dogs With Wings, an international accredited non-profit organization that purposefully breeds dogs with specific qualities.
“That is the gold standard for service dogs, facility dogs and seeing-eye dogs,” explains Carrie Stober, the handler of DDW Athena. “She is able to go on callouts, go to court for extended periods of time and so forth.”
Stober told commission members that their support dogs are trained for child forensic interviewing.
“They support children that have a particularly tragic story to tell or share with a police officer,” said Stober.
Often, those children will develop a close friendship with the dogs and will continue to visit following court proceedings.
“The other thing that’s really neat is to be able to see kids wanting to come back, although they’ve had the experience of something particularly traumatic,” says Stober. “Just knowing that they had this unconditional set of ears that listened to them, and they just wanted to visit with the dog.”
The dogs are also available to provide people support at the police station while filling out a statement or going through a difficult time as well as supporting victims by attending court, in cases, for days or weeks at a time.
Additionally, Stober said both Athena and Glory are able to travel to other jurisdictions like Calgary or Edmonton to provide support during specialized prosecutions.
“During that time, the Crowns have, on occasion, sent us an email saying, ‘I would appreciate a dog coming for no other purpose, I just want to be with the dog after the trial is over,” explains Stober.
In recognition for her work, commission members heard Stober has been chosen as the recipient of the 2025 Justice Canada Excellence in Victim Services Award and will be recognized for her service in May.
