… So Are You Last week, an elderly family member of mine chose MAID, medical assistance in dying. The night before, they told everyone that this would be their last night on earth. They would be dying the next morning. They were 95, lived a long life and did things very much on their own terms. They had been in pain for many months, age and other medical conditions meant there were few options left to manage it. They decided that this was their final page. Two days later I tu

The Hell I Can’t It was a horrible and frightening file. A young woman, biking home from work. Grabbed off the street. Dragged into a cemetery and sexually assaulted. Then forced back to the suspect’s home, where he held her for hours until she seized an opportunity to flee, calling police, and guiding us straight back to where he was. She was young, quiet, gentle. A virgin, which mattered. As the suspect sat in our cells, I walked through the file in my mind: What we had. Wh

It’s that time of year again. The parties, the lights, the music, the shopping, the world seems to overflow with “joy.” But not everyone experiences the holiday season this way. For some, this time of year amplifies heaviness, not happiness. I was in high school the first time I realized how deeply some people struggle at Christmas. Oddly enough, it started with the movie Gremlins . There’s a scene where the female lead tells the male lead that suicides are highest at Christm

Silence is a currency in policing. Some people spend it willingly. Others spend it because they have no choice. In my 26 years in law enforcement, I learned that silence is often rewarded more than courage. We celebrate bravery on the street, but behind closed doors, inside meeting rooms, hallways, and performance discussions, bravery looks very different. It looks like speaking truth to power. And that kind of bravery can cost you. We rarely talk about this publicly. We rare

Introducing Tightrope – Balancing Duty with Courage and Conviction After months of writing, cutting, adding, reworking, and bravely editing, it’s finally here. My book,   Tightrope: Balancing Duty with Courage and Conviction  is now available. I’ve said this many times throughout my life and career: no one walks their journey alone . Not in policing, not in leadership, not in healing, and certainly not in writing a book. Whether we’re facing moments of success or moments of f

Over my 26-year policing career, I worked with hundreds of people across three organizations and six different communities, municipal policing and the RCMP. With that many transitions, I’ve seen almost every reaction imaginable when someone leaves a unit or moves to a new posting. Some departures were celebrated with speeches and cake. Some were quiet handshakes in hallways. And some were so uneventful that you’d hardly know someone had spent years of their life there. But I’

I cut this story from "Tightrope" but I felt it was too important not to share. I had stopped and checked this particular violent offender on numerous occasions. He was a known pimp, drug trafficker, and had been unlawfully armed with a loaded handgun before, found by me, in fact. But that’s not what this story is about. It was a regular dayshift patrol when I decided to check if he had any outstanding warrants. I told my dispatcher I was going to stop and talk to him. I gave

Have You Ever Believed a Story That Wasn’t True? I have and it made me question how we decide who gets credit, recognition, and statues in life. Last week, I spent five unforgettable days in New York City. On a tour through Central Park, we stopped at the statue of Balto, the famous sled dog. Like many, I knew the popular story: Balto led the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska, saving countless children from diphtheria. Movies were made. Statues erected. History

This story was cut from my book Tightrope. With so many experiences I had to find a way to shorten the book (editor advice). But it’s important enough that I wanted to share it here. Over the course of my policing career, I investigated a number of stalking cases. In most of them, it was men stalking women after a relationship ended. Sometimes the couples had been married, sometimes they hadn’t. But the pattern was always the same: one person refused to accept that the relati

Behind the Yellow Tape The yellow police tape is a symbol most people associate with crime scenes—a barrier that separates the known from...

The Faces of Leadership “When you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill I’ve tried many times over the years to explain...

That’s what my friends said when I was on the fence about applying for a promotion. For several years, I didn’t really care who was in...

The People Who Show Up No Matter What When I first learned what ride or die  meant, it hit me hard. I’d seen funny videos and heartfelt...

“That’s not how you do it.” That was the horrified statement of my 19-year-old daughter after I launched my Instagram adventure. She was...

Fishing Rods and Figure Skates In my twenties, I went fishing with my parents a few times, and after I married, I took my husband. We...

I recently shared a story on LinkedIn about my fear of heights, something that developed later in life, rooted in years of trauma...

Years ago, traveling through Europe in my twenties, I kept hearing the same phrase in train stations: “Mind the gap.”  It was a reminder...

When I was Chief of Police in my hometown, I wanted more than anything to connect with youth. I knew the struggles they faced, the...

Writing has been with me for as long as I can remember. I still have my very first pink diary with the little lock on it. Back then, I...