For 16-year-old Tayshaun Small Eyes, slipping on a Lethbridge Police Service tactical vest was one of the highlights of his day with the Youth Police Academy.
He became interested in a career in policing with encouragement from his grandmother and from meeting some influential people at a young age.
“I had a couple of role models of police when I was living in Cardston and on the reservation that were kind people and good people,” said Small Eyes.
The 11th grader is one of 16 high school students from southern Alberta taking part in the 6th annual Youth Police Academy with LPS.
Cst. Chris Andrade with the youth engagement unit said these students were chosen because of their interest in law enforcement.
“They are coming to the age where they can decide for post-secondary purposes if policing is something they are going to be interested in, and just to see what a true day to day in the life of a police officer looks like in Lethbridge,” said Cst. Andrade.
LPS also uses the youth academy experience to help with recruitment. Cst. Allister Koop knows how effective it can be, it was the same type of program that introduced him to a career in policing.
Now he gets to share that same experience with potential new members.
“It gave me a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what this job actually is and kind of ignited the fire in me to do this job and serve my community,” said Cst. Koop.
The hands-on opportunity has also sparked the interest of Reece Lanz. The grade 10 student said seeing some of the different avenues of policing has been good motivation to buckle down and work towards a career.
“Usually, I just see it on TV and all the shows and I thought it was really cool and I wanted to see what it was like in real life and not in a movie,” she added.
Armed with a little more knowledge following the academy, the participating students said they could see themselves donning a police uniform someday soon.
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