New Corporal excited to join RCMP - "You can't beat small town living"

The Killam RCMP Detachment has a new member.

On May 12, Corporal Trent Cleveland started at the detachment, accepting a promotion to Corporal, and will act as the detachment NCO in charge for the time being.

Cleveland is very familiar with the Flagstaff region, having been born and raised in Camrose, where he can trace his roots back to the 1920s through his great-grandfather.

He has family in Flagstaff, being related to the Froehler and Brausen families.

Cleveland says when he graduated from High School in Camrose, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, so he took a year off to work, putting in time as a labourer with Border Paving until he decided. At the time, he was considering either teaching or the RCMP.

He decided to pursue a career with the RCMP and headed to the University of Lethbridge to complete a degree in Criminal Justice, then spent the next three years working at a variety of jobs while he waited for his RCMP application to be approved.

He attended Depot, the RCMP training centre in Regina on March 25, 2008, graduating that September.

Cleveland’s first posting was in Ft. Vermilion, in northern Alberta in a small detachment similar to Killam’s, then he was transferred to Camrose RCMP.

He then moved to the Wetaskiwin RCMP, who police both urban and rural Wetaskiwin, working there until his promotion and transfer to Killam.

“I found that I liked the rural settings a lot better. You can’t beat small town living,” Cleveland says.

While initially moving from Camrose to Ft. Vermilion was a culture shock for Cleveland and his wife, they grew to appreciate it.

The two are high school sweethearts, and now have four children.

The couple are busy with hockey and baseball, through their children, and Cleveland says they like to travel with the kids, and already frequent Hardisty Lake every summer.

“I’m looking forward to finding other hidden gems in the area,” he says, having recently discovered Camp Lake near Viking.

He and his wife like to take their children camping and hiking, and are looking forward to exploring the area.

Coincidentally, his brother changed his career path after Cleveland graduated from the RCMP, and is now a Camrose City Police officer.

Cleveland says that not only does he enjoy the rural setting, he likes the idea of working in a smaller detachment, and eventually would like to end up as a Sargeant of a detachment like Killam.

His proximity to the detachment’s coverage area means he doesn’t have to move, for now, but Cleveland says that may change. “We will see how it goes as far as the commute.”