Some of Kingston’s finest are calling it a career.
A handful of veteran officers are retiring this summer, and one of them is Insp. Carolyn Rice. When Global News caught up with her she was sitting in her nearly-empty office taking a phone call one of the last times she’ll do so as a member of the Kingston Police.
“When I look back on my overall career I think highlights for me were my time in the detective office and in the child abuse and sexual assault unit — feeling that was kind of the most impacted, meaningful work,” Rice said.
Rice, who started her career in Toronto, has dealt with hundreds of cases over her time including what was then the first-ever Amber Alert in Kingston. It happened back in March of 2010 when two young brothers were taken from the Children’s Aid Office on Montreal Street.
“You don’t know how that’s going to end right,” Rice, a native of Halifax, told Global News. “People are stressed, the kids are in danger and so it’s a pretty hairy initial investigation in trying to make sure that you’re covering off all the right pieces and getting the right alerts out.”
As it turns out, the York Regional Police took the suspect into custody without incident and the young boys were unharmed. Rice says it was a relief.
“It’s like, OK, we did it and it takes multiple people to make all those things happen and other police services and agencies and no, just for me it’s a sense of relief,” Rice said.
Rice says the good days far outnumbered the bad and she feels privileged to be a part of such a great team. She says as an officer, as any officer you want to help people, you want to help your community and you want to make a difference in someone’s life.
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