Created to help high school students gain leadership experience and leave their comfort zone, the Greater Victoria Police Foundation's Police Camp is expected to be life-changing.
"I already had one student last night ask me, 'Can I come back next year?' And I went, 'It's only day three. You're already talking about next year?'" joked Police Camp director Kim Basi following an Integrated Canine Service (ICS) demonstration from the Oak Bay, Saanich and Victoria police departments.
The week-long camp allows 50 students from across Greater Victoria to experience aspects of working as a law enforcement officer, from canine demonstrations to break-and-enter simulations.
"This is one of the most rewarding things, watching these kids during the week, and they're growing, they're changing," Basi said.
At the Tuesday, March 18 demonstration at St. Margaret's School, Sam Lilas, a Grade 11 student and army cadet, said that though she doesn't want to work in policing, she thinks the camp was a valuable experience.
"I heard from some of my cadets that this would be a great opportunity for me to be involved with the community and my whole goal was to be more confident and meet new friends. So being here was a big goal accomplishment," she said.
Over the morning, Lilas and her colleagues watched demonstrations from three German shepherds – Bruno, Bomber and Riot – and a new Labrador trainee named Mazie.
"[Their job is] pretty cool. Using dogs as tools, that's pretty smart. It's weird to see that they're using everything they have in training the dog and having their dog as their personal 'person' and then using that and applying it in real-life scenarios," said Lilas.
Const. Kris Andrew of the ICS and the Saanich Police Department explained that the camp allows kids to see what the job is like.
"I've done police camp for five years as a chaperone. After that, I was out just walking around and I saw a kid and he just came up and gave me a big hug. And said, 'You changed my life.' That moment is what I live for, changing a student's life. It's showing someone how cool our job is and how much fun it is," said Andrew.
The camp will go to Saturday, March 22 when it wraps up with a final graduation ceremony.
