When I first heard about the take your kid to work I thought it was going a boring thing that I had to go to and just fall asleep halfway through it. I have never been more wrong in my life. I’ll start off at the beginning. I had to wake up at 6:00am on a Wednesday and drive downtown to got to the VPD offices. Me and my dad got there by 7:30 and we met in a massive central room in the offices. We had to wait for a little bit in this room and a police man went around taking photos of everyone in the room. Then we each got a solo photo holding a sign that said the address of the offices. The photographer then took a big group photo with everyone in it that was there doing the take your kid to work day.

Solo photo

Group photo

We then got led to another room called the recruitment centre where, you guessed it, all the recruitment phases took place. We were in there for about an hour and we had a presentation for the recruitment officers. They talked to us about becoming a police officer. I was surprised how long it could take to become a police officer and some of the things you had to do. For example you have to go to at least 9 months of police academy before you can become a patrol officer. They also talked about some of the skills you had to have to be a police officer. Like you have to have very good people skills and stamina because a lot of the job is talking to people and trying to gain their compliance. After the recruitment officers talked to us we had the CSI guys come in, also known as the Forensic Identification unit. They gave us a presentation on al the things they do in their job like test DNA samples, find blood and use tracks to identify a criminal. I was surprised by how much things you could do to identify someone. You can use things like blood samples, shoe tracks, tire tracks and even things like using ears to identify people. They gave us a demonstration on how they used a chemical to test if a substance was blood or not and I thought that was a really cool thing to do.

 

Recruitment centre

 

Identification methods

After this presentation we had to get a ride to our next destination which was the dog squad, this was one of my favourite things we did that day because who doesn’t love dogs. We got there in the bus and it was pouring down with rain. We went in through a big gate and there was a big bronze statue of a dog on a large podium. It was pouring down with rain so we had to go under some bleachers to keep dry. The head trainer there gave all of us a presentation on how they train the dogs and he showed us some of the things that the dogs could do. He took his dog on a conspires around that went over and under walls through windows and down ramps. It was pretty cool. He then told us a bit about his dog and some things about him, the most interesting of which is hoe much a fully trained police dog can sell for. The police officer said they could sell for up to 80,000$. That’s crazy. I didn’t realize how much trying had to go into a police dog and I found that really surprising. You have to train a dog or 18 months before it’s fully trained and most of the time you the police do not breed their own dogs they mostly buy them from outside breeders or even other countries. This one I think was the one part of this day that I would consider doing as a job. I love animals and especially dogs and this way you get to spend all day with them and doing some good in the world. I know there are other ways of doing this but this way just seems so much fun for me and I would love to do it.

Dog squad building

 

It was then time to go back on the bus which was the most boring part of the day and my least favourite part. But then it was time to go to the firing range. This was a lot of fun and we were there or a bit over an hour. We first had a presentation on the safety of guns and how to hold them and what to do with them. We then got led into a big room with lots of blue pads on the floor. This was the sparring area where all the officers would practice that moves that they would use to take down the bad guys. We then got a demonstration on how a taser works and the policeman demonstrating picked me to be the one to fire it. The taser was a lot louder than I expected and gave off a loud bang. Everyone jumped at the sound of it. It was a really cool experience and is I’ll never forget doing that for the rest of my life. After the taser we got led back into the lunch area and we went off in different groups to do to fire actual guns. The targets were placed at about 10 meters away and we all took turns firing five bullets. I thought I did okay considering it was my first time firing a gun and I was surprised at how much easier it was than I had thought it would be. We then had a quick pizza lunch in the break room and then it was time to split up into two different groups.

Click here for instructor demonstrating how bullet works.

My results

 

Click here for video on an electric knife replica

Sparring room

Gun on the wall

My group went to the mounted unit in Stanley park which was where they kept all the horses. We got to go through the stables and meet some of the horses and it kinda stank in there. There about five horses all of different sizes and colours. The policeman said there that the reason they to use the horses were because they were much more nimble and faster than cars and buggies in Stanley park as most of the time they need to go running through the forest. It also does a lot less damage to the environment around them as that is the most important thing in Stanley park. After the stables we went outside and there were a couple of traffic officers there that talked to us a bit about what they do. They mostly deal with drunk drivers and speeding and are normally the first people in the seen of a crash. They showed us the breathalizers they used and the speed guns and explained how they work which I thought was very cool. We didn’t have a lot of time here and it was time to go the marine unit which was my favourite part of the whole day.

Main building

One of the horses and someone’s hand

 

Click here for a quick video of a cute horse

 

Stables

The marine unit is located in the harbour which is right at the edge of Stanley park. It was a small building and they two boats moored up at the dock. We got led into the building and we had to dress up in warm gear as it was beyond freeze fog on the top of the boat. I went on the slightly larger boat with five other people and the rest of the group went on the smaller one that went faster than the one I was on. We went slow for a little bit as we got out of the little docking and then as we reached open water we went full speed which was about 40 knots. We went past lions gate bridge and did a big loop around and stated to head back along to the harbour. We then got led back into the main building and the officers told us a bit about what they do. They lead boats into the harbour, do assize searches on tanker ships, look for lost kids on the sea wall and much more things that I could go in for hours for. They showed us some videos of boat crashes and things they find in the water like body’s or abandoned boats. I would have loved to stay longer but it was time to go back to where we started and meet the police chief. Exciting right, even my dad says he’s never met the police chief. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any photos or videos because it was just so windy and muddy but you can click here for the marine unit homepage.

 

The police chief came in a gave us a presentation on what it’s like to be a police chief and some of the things you have to go through like media relations and dealing with problems with people and other police officers. I asked him what his favourite part was about being police chief and he said it was getting the opportunity to work with all the people in his department. He loves to meet all the people that work under home and says that the VPD has an outstanding reputation among other apartments in North America and he was really proud of his officers. I also asked what the biggest problem the department faced as police officers and he said it was problems with people that have mental disorders. He said everyday there are dozens of calls involving ease people and it is very hard for the police to deal with them because everyone is different and might react a different way with what’s going on. Sometimes bad and sometimes good. He also said it was really hard dealing with all the media that goes around these days. He said the media tends to only publish the bad things that Elle do never the good that happens during the day. I also think this is a big problem as I see everyday int he world today. This gives police a lot more bad police and nowadays are treated more as the bad guys in the world. Anyway the police chief then left us to tend to some more important business and we were left with the ERT guys also known as the SWAT team.

Police cheif and a microphone that got in the way

This was the last part of our day and probably the coolest. We had each member of the team come home and give us a presentation on what each of them did in the team. They had a sniper, a medic, a breaching guy who was also a demolition expert and two first through the door guys. These guys were trained in a lot of things like reeling down from a skyscraper, water boarding and night missions. They talked a bit about how they would approach each situation and what they would use in each situation. They gave us a demonstration on the gear each of them use and one of them even had drone that we could drive around the room. Then they setup stations around the room and we got to look at each of the different sieves of gear. There were shotguns, helmets, snipers, battering rams and gas masks and it was the coolest thing ever. We then got to go look at their massive ARV that was in the parking lot and get a photo with a bunch of tactical gear on and a sub machine gun. A bunch of kids, myself included, wanted to see how a flash bang worked and sounded so they took one out and threw it in the parking lot, just like that!!!!! I didn’t want the day to end after that but unfortunately it was time to end and I learned a lot that day.

Inside of ARV

Me dressed up in tactical gear                  Outside of ARV

Breaching shotgun

Assault rifle and click here for SWAT team member demonstrating it.

It was probably the most fun I’ve had in awhile and I was sad to see it go. I would definitely consider a career in this line of work but I’m still not sure what I want to be when I grow up. I would definitely do this again and I will make sure to recommend this to anyone else who has the opportunity to do this. Thank you for reading this very large post and I’ll see you next time on my blog.