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Photo courtesy of the Weyburn Police Service
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Constable Levi Elford, Corporal Ryan Cherniawsky, and Constable Vincent Leippy were some of the members who stopped by The Family Place last week. (Photo courtesy of the Weyburn Police Service)
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Last week, members of the Weyburn Police Service focused on community engagement, spending some time with the city’s younger residents at The Family Place.  

WPS Sergeant Riley Ross explains the organization is one of their community partners. 

“We like to engage with those partners within the community. The Family Place had reached out to us and asked if we could have some members swing by there.” 

The members that attended spent time reading books to the children, answering their questions, and showing off the police car.  

“It's a pretty cool thing that we get to do with the community and it's pretty cool for us to see the smiles on the kids' faces when they get to see the police lights and hear the sirens.” 

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Constable Matt Sanders showed off the lights and sirens to the kids. (Photo courtesy of the Weyburn Police Service)
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Corporal Ryan Cherniawsky showed off one of their unmarked vehicles. (Photo courtesy of the Weyburn Police Service)

Sgt. Ross explains some of the curiosities they heard from the kids, saying they asked about the tools on officers belts, specifically handcuffs. They also enjoyed saying hello to the dispatcher over the radio.  

“The kids are also always curious about the back seat of the police car where the ‘bad guys’ sit.” 

Sgt. Ross says it's important for the community to trust the police, especially in a smaller community like Weyburn. He believes a key part of this is an understanding of what their work entails. 

“The way I see it, the police are the public and the public are the police. We want to be able to interact with everyone in the public and show that we're a positive impact on the community and that starts from a young age.” 

He continues, saying they want kids to feel comfortable approaching police and asking questions, voicing concerns, or just saying hello.  

“We ultimately want the children to trust us.  Being a role model is an important aspect of policing and being able to go into facilities like the Family Place allow us to do these things and interact with the kids and hopefully have them look up to us.” 

Sgt. Ross stresses that kids, and all members of the public, can approach police at any time. He says police make an effort to be as visible as possible and interact with the community at every opportunity. Students may see officers visiting schools and helping with police education, attending games at our rinks or ball diamonds, or just walking around downtown.  

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