The new face on staff for Prince Albert Police Service emphasizes cultural respect for aboriginal people.
Montreal Lake Cree Nation’s Julie Naytowhow is their new aboriginal resource officer.
Her job focuses on helping victims of crime and traumatic events.
Naytowhow says she wants to help people feel more comfortable, even if they have bad perceptions of police.
“I’d like to do my best to make it a more positive experience for aboriginal people,” she said.
The job involves dealing with people at very difficult times, says Julie Pitzel, past aboriginal resource officer and current Elder with Prince Albert police.
“My case load had homicides, suicides, and domestic violence,” she said. “The people that had, say, homicides here, we would have a debriefing, I’d help with a debriefing of the family to tell them how the case is going, different things like that.”
Pitzel was the first aboriginal resource officer, which involved a lot of trailblazing. She said her tactic was to never turn anyone away, using the example of a young man who had been adopted to a family out of province and was looking to reconnect with his birth parents.
“I know a lot of people …. I gave him that information and tried to reconnect with his family,” she said. “I also helped him because he had difficulty adjusting so I also referred him to counselling.
Referrals come in from police, victim services, and walk-ins.
In terms of aboriginal practices, Pitzel introduced praying in debriefings, among other things.
As the new officer, Naytowhow said she is very family-focused, because of her education and past jobs.
“I’ve learned about the culture – Plains culture and Woodland Cree culture – learned about ceremonies, and I’m still learning about that now. And that is what I’m hoping I can bring into the program, help families learn about their identity, she said.
“Some of us grieve differently, we take time to grieve, and so it’ll be, I want to instill a bit of culture into that.”
There are currently six aboriginal resource officer positions in Saskatchewan.