From the reporters desk, to the police force

Kristen Charron
Kristen Charron

The journey into policing for the Branford Police Service’s newest 4th class constable, started during a ride-along in Wallaceburg.

“I was a reporter at the Wallaceburg News and then I worked at the (Sarnia) Observer for a while,” Wallaceburg’s Kristen Charron told the Sydenham Current. “I started doing copy editing and pagination for them and it wasn’t for me… sitting at a desk all the time. What I really loved about being a reporter was when I got to go out and interview people.”

Charron added “I felt like I was helping people by making a difference, not a huge difference, but I was getting their stories out there and telling their stories. Sometimes it would be a special event to help them raise money or whatever it would be. I felt like I was contributing to my community and doing something important. Sitting behind a desk, I didn’t feel like that so much. I was thinking I wanted to change my career.”

While contemplating a new path, Charron spoke with a local police officer for some advice.

“Actually, Mike Curran who was the District Sergeant in Wallaceburg at the time, he said well have you ever thought about policing,” she said. “I said no. So he put me on a ride-along and after one ride-along, I said this is definitely something I would love doing. That was the moment.”

From there at the age of 29, Charron took the police foundations program at St. Clair College, which she said “familiarized” herself with law.

After passing, she began the next step, which is Applicant Testing Services.

“They have a number of tests that you have to pass and then you get a certificate of results, and then you can apply to police services,” she said. “When you apply to police services, they have a number of steps you have to go through, some are the same, some are different. It just depends on the service. After that whole process, they basically decide if you are in or not. If you do, they send you away to police college.”

Charron said one of the biggest challenges for her along the way was a test called the PREP.

“Back then I wasn’t the greatest runner,” she said. “It involves a shuttle run and the longer you run, the faster you have to run. You have to get to a certain level to pass this test. I actually failed the PREP part three times before I passed it because of the running part.”

She said the circuit portion, which consisted of going through an obstacle course, lifting dummies, etc., was no problem, but the running part was the killer.

“I got a trainer who put some programs together for me,” she said. “Through doing the programs that he made me, I was able to pass the test… and my fitness has increased ever since then.”

Charron said she was ecstatic when she got the call from the Brantford Police with the news she was hired.

“It was the best day of my life,” she said. “I was so happy, so excited. They were actually the first place I applied to.”

Charron graduated on July 31 from police college.

Now that she is officially an officer with a police force, Charron said she still utilizes skills she refined during her time as a reporter in Wallaceburg.

“The skills I use the most are interviewing,” she said. “We interview and take notes at the scene like we would when I was a reporter. That has helped me a lot. Learning how to speak to people and especially follow-up questions. For instance if somebody tells me something, not just to leave it… asking open-ended questions, asking follow-up questions to get out a story. That’s basically what you are doing, you’re writing reports.”

Charron said: “A lot of the things I did at the Wallaceburg News, I do in this career. Even things likes knowing how to read a map to get from one place to another. You’re going to different locations to interview, with policing it’s the same thing, you’re going call, to call, to call. There are so many transferable skills it’s not even funny.”

Charron said she credits a long list of people for helping her along her journey.

As for the future, Charron said is content as her brand new career is still soaking in, but the opportunities moving forward are exciting.

“There are so many places you can go with your career and so many people you can help,” she said. “A lot of people are probably afraid to try it because they don’t think they have what it takes to offer. I’m kind of living proof of that. I didn’t have a policing background when I started out. My main thing was journalism. A lot of people don’t realize that they have so many transferable skills and things to offer.. second languages, stuff like that. Policing always needs women and a lot of women don’t think that they can do it, but they train you to do it.”

Here is another submitted photo of Charron from her swearing in ceremony:

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