By Leslie Cholowsky, Editor
Constable Jesse Steil started his first shift at the Killam/Forestburg RCMP Detachment shortly after completing his training at Depot this past June. Since then, he’s been working with his training officer Cst. Logan Ryder, which is standard for all new members, to be paired up with an experienced member.
Steil was raised in central Alberta, and is very familiar with the Flagstaff region, because he spent two years prior to his RCMP training working as a dispatcher for Camrose City Police.
Steil says being a police officer has been his career goal since before he even hit school, before Kindergarten. “It was something I wanted to be back then, and it never changed.”
He decided on a career with the RCMP because growing up rural, that’s the policing he saw and wanted to be part of. He also thinks that what kept his dream alive through his childhood was the positive result of “the Mounties being in schools.” His grandpa was an Auxiliary member, but he has no family in the police force other than that.
After a year or so as a dispatcher he put in his application, and after a 10 month process, got his acceptance to start last November at Depot. Steil says he had the opportunity to do a ride-along with Cst. Ryder while waiting to start, too, that helped cement his decision.
The Killam Detachment was one of the places he picked as his choice for assignment after training, so he was thrilled to come to the region. “I really wanted to work in the rural area, I grew up on an acreage, so I am familiar with and like rural living. It’s a quieter pace.”
He’s visited every community in the detachment area since starting, and says that the people in the area have been welcoming. “The community seems very pro-police and very friendly.”
He says the other members and staff at the detachment have been extremely friendly, too, and easy to work with.
He says he likes how in a rural detachment, members handle files from start to finish, giving them experience in many different aspects of policing, versus a larger detachment where a constable might make an arrest, but then might hand the file off to investigating officers.
When he’s not working, he likes to golf in the summer, and was pretty happy to see all the golf courses in the detachment area, or close by. In the winter he likes snowmobiling and skiing, and looks forward to getting in a little mountain skiing this coming winter.
Read the rest of this story from the August 26 edition of The Community Press!
