N E W
FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2014
W E S T M I N S T E R
INSIDE TODAY: Showing their Pride colours P11
NEWS,
SPORTS,
OPINION
&
ENTERTAINMENT
www.royalcityrecord.com
Women: A growing force in the city Three New Westminster female police officers tell us what it’s like
I
t’s been more than a century since women managed to break into the ranks of policing in B.C. In 1912 female officers wore long heavy skirts, carried purses and were not allowed weapons of any sort. Equal pay, let alone equal anything, was unimaginable at that time. A lot has changed since then. Nowadays, more women are considering policing as a career choice, and female CAYLEY DOBIE officers on the beat are standard. According to a 2013 report by the RCMP, of the nearly 20,000 regular members across the country, 20 per cent are women. Within the New Westminster Police Department, a police service considerably smaller in composition than the RCMP, women make up about 23 per cent of officers. Sgt. Diana McDaniel, one of the department’s more senior female members, says that number has been on a steady climb since she joined the force in 1997. This growing number of female officers, plus the nearly fifty-fifty split seen entering the recruitment process, mean’s women have become an integral part of the police department. The Record’s crime reporter Cayley Dobie recently sat down with three female officers of varying ranks and experience levels to hear from them about being both a woman and police officer in New Westminster – the challenges, the triumphs
ON MY BEAT
Cornelia Naylor/THE RECORD
Tough women: From left, Const. Lara Dewitt, Sgt. Diana McDaniel and Const. Shannon McLeod are among a large group of female police officers at the New Westminster Police Department. Women make up about 23 per cent of all officers at the local department, compared to 20 per cent within the entire RCMP. and overall experience of being part of the force. Cayley Dobie: Why policing? Sgt. Diana McDaniel: I wanted to be
nity, and I was very athletic and active, so policing just sort of attracted me. … It offered variety, it offered different shifting,
a social worker at first, (but) I thought I didn’t want to be stuck in an office, though. I thought that you could do good work with the public and in the commu-
◗On the beat Page 3
Driver gets five-year suspension for woman’s death BY CAYLEY DOBIE REPORTER cdobie@royalcityrecord.com
A $2,000 fine and five-year driving prohibition – that’s the sentence handed down to the driver who struck and killed Gemma Snowball last year.
Kelowna resident Ryan Follack appeared in court on Tuesday for his sentencing hearing following his arrest on Aug. 11, after he failed to appear on the scheduled date of sentencing, Aug. 8, according to a press release from the New Westminster police.
Follack’s sentencing is the final step in a lengthy case that began back in March of 2013 when Snowball, a deli counter employee at the old Royal City Centre Safeway, was struck while crossing at Sixth Avenue and Sixth Street late one rainy night.
The 25-year-old New Westminster resident, originally from Perth, Australia, sustained severe injuries and died in hospital on March 13, two days after the collision, as The Record previously reported. Following an investigation by the New ◗Sentence Page 4
OPENS THIS WEEKEND! SEE WHAT’S NEW & ONLY COMING TO THE FAIR THIS YEAR! PLUS GET EVEN BIGGER SAVINGS AT PNE _ PLAYLAND
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
twitter .com/TheRecord
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
PNECLIPS
facebook.com/RoyalCityRecord