In this week's episode, I was honoured to welcome Darren Smith. Darren was born and raised in Calgary. After High School, he attended the University of Calgary, where he got a degree in Sociology focusing on criminology, before joining the Calgary Police Service in 2004. He has since returned to school several times, being trained in management, police leadership, major crime investigations, and incident command. He is currently completing his Master's Degree in Public Safety.
Since joining, Darren has worked in various areas within the service. He has worked in and supervised patrol, has worked in surveillance units, including the city's Auto Theft Team and the public safety unit, and was deployed to both the G8 in Toronto as well as the Olympics in Vancouver. At 29, he was promoted to Detective, working on significant crime investigations, including attempted murders, robberies, kidnappings, sexual assaults, abductions, and all crimes against persons. He has been awarded several times by the police service, City, and Province, for the teams and investigations he has led and been a part of.
Darren has a passion for preventing family violence. He supervised the Domestic Violence Team for many years, teaching domestic violence prevention and investigation to police officers, other agencies, and civilians. He was later transferred to the Homicide unit, where he worked on several homicide files, many of which involved domestic violence, before moving to the offender management unit. Darren is currently a Staff Sergeant in the Calgary Police Service, supervising the Child Abuse Unit. Having supervised and led hundreds of police officers for over a decade, Darren also has a passion for ensuring the mental health of his officers and their families and ensuring they have rewarding careers and lives.
In this episode, Darren and I talk about his passion for being a member of the Calgary Police Services and why he loves to work with people. We also discuss the mental health challenges first responders face and the impact first responders have on our society due to their dedication and the sacrifices they make.
---
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/furkhan-dandia/support
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
