Investigating options: High school students consider career opportunities in policing

Becoming a police officer is usually near the top of most children’s lists when asked what they want to be when they grow up.

But as they get older and their interests change, the idea of donning the uniform to serve and protect often fades into the background.

Not so in the case of 27 Thunder Bay high school students, who spent Friday learning the ins and outs of the Thunder Bay Police Service to get a better handle on whether or not policing might be for them.

Sarah Hetsler-Burns, a Grade 11 student at Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute, said she’d really like to go to medical school, but if that dream doesn’t work out, her second choice would be to become a police officer.

It’s comes naturally to the teen.

“My uncle is a police officer,” Hetsler-Burns said. “I also like watching crime shows because I’m interested in forensics. So it’s sort of my back-up plan if my other career choice doesn’t work out. But I wanted to see if would like it and be interested in it.”

It’s an intriguing career choice, the youngster added.

“They’re out there every day risking their lives and they’re helping people in the community and they’re protecting us. I find that a very important thing to do and it’s an important responsibility,” she said.

“Every emergency responder is their own type of hero.”

Sixteen-year-old Anton Demetrakopoulos, a Grade 11 student at Hammarskjold High School, said he’s not sure what he wants to do for a career. But he’s spent the past two years helping out with the student Crime Stoppers committee, introducing the program to fellow students throughout the city.

“Hopefully I’m going to learn more about policing and how I can bring it back to our community and to our school. I’ve always considered policing a possibility of a career. It’s up there with my other possibilities, so hopefully I’ll learn more about it.

Thunder Bay Police Const. Julie Tilbury said students often have a preconceived notion of what policing is all about, and inviting them to spend the day at the police station is one way to help them learn just what the job entails.

It’s not all Hollywood, Tilbury said.

“I think the reality of it is that what they see on TV is not the reality of policing,” she said. “The reality is that being able to take good notes, staying in school and getting a career before you come here (is smart) because this isn’t for everyone.

“Some people think this is what they want to do until they get into it. It is a tough job and it can be very hard, depending on your abilities to be resilient and roll with the punches of what the job has to offer.”

There’s a lot of paperwork, for example.

“We just want to give them a snapshot of all the different opportunities, because there’s so much diversity in policing. It’s not just general patrol.”

Computer crimes and forensics are just two areas where policing is changing, almost on a daily basis, Tilbury added.