TIGHTROPE
Balancing Duty With Courage and Conviction
TIGHTROPE
Coming Soon
How do you stay upright when the very system you swore to uphold begins to shake beneath your feet?
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In Tightrope, retired Deputy Chief Constable Jennifer Hyland offers a rare and unflinching look behind the badge. Through raw honesty and hard-won wisdom, she charts her twenty-six-year journey through Canadian policing—rising from a young recruit to one of the highest-ranking women in the profession—all while walking the fragile line between duty and despair, strength and vulnerability, silence and truth.
But this is more than a story about crime scenes and crisis calls. It’s about the invisible injuries: the quiet corrosion of identity from institutional politics, power struggles, and a culture that too often punishes authenticity. Diagnosed with PTSD and multiple sclerosis, Hyland came face-to-face with her breaking point—and chose not to shatter. Instead, she found a way forward that honoured both the work and her humanity.
Tightrope is a reckoning and a rallying cry. It’s for everyone who has walked a difficult path, for those wearing a uniform, those just entering policing, and those who’ve left—wondering if they were the only ones who struggled. It’s a mirror, a lifeline, and an invitation to heal. Because the truth is, you’re not alone—and there is strength, and even hope, on the other side of the storm.
REVIEWS
What readers are saying
"Deputy Chief (Ret.) Jennifer Hyland has written a book that anyone who is an officer of any kind, or is thinking of becoming one, will greatly benefit from reading. Her book takes you inside the complex realities that officers face, and reveals the inner struggles to manage the conflicts, loneliness and stresses that are inevitable in the work. This book might seem political but I personally don’t think that is its main purpose — It is a book about loving to be standing in a place to protect and care deeply about other people — and the emotional price that is inevitably paid in doing this kind of work. If you want to understand how difficult the job can be, and how awesomely rewarding it can be…this book is a must read!"
Terry D. Anderson PhD, Chief Leadership Officer, Command College