The three new recruits for the Weyburn Police Service have been training arduously at the Saskatchewan Police College, and for the last month back in Weyburn where their training is ongoing under the guidance of a training officer.
Levi Elford, Lisa Robertson and Preston Roy all began at the same time, and took on the training at the police college, in spite of the challenges that COVID-19 threw their way, including cutting short their time at the college.
Their training is continuing, but now it’s with the constables being a part of a platoon within WPS, and learning on the job under supervision.
Elford, who grew up in Milestone, said of the training, “That was probably the most demanding and challenging time I’ve ever had, but at the same time it was one of the most fun times as well.”
He noted that Police College was initially going to be 20 weeks in length, but due to an upsurge of COVID cases in Regina, it was cut short by four weeks.
“They streamlined a handful of classes and we finished earlier, but we had to continue the training once we got back to Weyburn,” he said, noting their return was at the start of May.
Once they finished up some more training here, they were put into platoons within the last week, plus they jumped in with patrols when they were able to, said Elford, adding that it’s “definitely a huge relief” to be done most of the college part of the training.
“There’s always going to be training,” he added.
Elford has wanted to join the Weyburn force for a while, and had applied a couple of times before he was accepted as a recruit. “It can be quite a competitive process.”
He will have a field training officer with him anytime he’s on shift for the next five or six months, as “there’s lots of learning yet to do. … Every day there’s something new. It’s a real challenge to remember all the things we learned.”
Meantime, the people of Weyburn and his fellow officers in the department have been very welcoming and friendly, and he’s been learning a lot from the officers he’s worked with.
For Robertson, she had a taste of police work as she served for a time in the position of community safety officer. She felt she had more to offer, so when the positions for new constables came up, she jumped at the chance.
“Being a community safety officer had its limitations, and I was limited to what calls I could attend,” she said, adding she believed this position did help prepare her for moving on.
One advantage was she had gone through some basic training and knew some of the legislation that pertained to law enforcement, and has enjoyed getting more in-depth with the training as a police officer.
“I felt the training was really great at the Saskatchewan Police College … and coming back to Weyburn and actually working in the office and on the street with the other officers, this is really where I’m learning a lot. I’ve learned a lot in the last four weeks,” she said, noting that being on the job has broadened her knowledge as well, as every call is a different situation.
The college was a good experience too as she met recruits from around the province, and has made some lifelong friends through that training process.
Learning under COVID protocols meant they had to be within a bubble of recruits, and they were together in a small group for the duration of their college classes.
“That’s when we really got close, as we had to stay with them 24/7. We had to learn how it would be in a platoon,” she said, noting she missed being with Levi and Preston as they were in different bubbles for this part of the training.
Meantime she is very much enjoying the ongoing training while on calls in the city, and said having a field training officer with her “is like having your own personal trainer with you the whole time. … It’s been great being out in the public, and working with a great team at the WPS.”
For Preston, he is following the footsteps of his father Marcel, who served for many years with the Weyburn Police Service.
The training was very much what he expected, after getting a heads-up from the officers he knows, but COVID had an impact on the training.
“Take the workouts, as grueling as they were, wearing a mask while working out made it that much harder to breathe,” he said, adding it also affected scheduling as they had to form into bubbles.
“There was a point where the college was wondering if they had to postpone everything,” he said, and when the COVID numbers began to rise fast, the session was cut short and the three recruits went home to finish up their training in Weyburn.
“We have pretty good training people in the police department. We have such good police officers, it’s been great learning from their experience,” said Roy.
He noted he had always been interested in police work, although out of high school he went to work in the oilpatch, and worked as an oilfield safety consultant for 12 years before jumping at the chance to apply as a new constable.
He noted his father is very proud that he has joined the force, and said he believes he and Marcel are the first father-and-son to work in the same police department in Weyburn.
Asked if he has any long-term goals in the police department, Roy said for now he wants to get a good foundation of learning, and to figure out as he goes how he might best serve on the police force.
He said he was happy he was able to go to police college along with two other recruits from Weyburn, as often a new recruit is on his or her own when they join up and go into training.
“Everyone back here are always very supportive. I’m really happy with the leadership and how they’ve been rooting us on,” said Roy.
