The Indigenous Junior Police Academy is a program designed to connect urban and rural Indigenous youth with the tools and information they need to step into policing as a career, learn more about the profession or just simply meet some of the officers.
The Calgary Police have had a Junior Police Academy for some time, but when they realized they had no Indigenous youth, the idea of a Junior Police Academy with an Indigenous perspective was born.
There are 24 open slots for the youth, and so far they have 14 spots filled, but the goal for Calgary Police is to fill this program to the brim, and to eventually extend and add to the existing program as well.
The week starts with a traditional blessing, and ends with a graduation parade. Throughout the week, interested youth will get to explore the Property Room, the Firearms Lab, and will get visits from the RCMP, the K9 unit, Hawks and more throughout the week long experience.
We got to visit the Calgary Police, and chatted with Sherry Elliot, one of the leads for the program, and Cst. Theran Bremner and discussed the current landscape of police/Indigenous youth relations.
We asked Cst. Bremner and Sherry about the mix of urban and rural Indigenous youth.
We asked Sherry about how CPS plans to include the Tsuut’ina and Blood Tribe Police in their event this year and the future.
We asked both Sherry and Cst. Bremner which day they would be most excited for.
This week long event runs from July 27th to July 31st.
Comments