Marg Eve Award for Leadership

The recipient of the Leadership Award has been an officer for 17 years with her Service. She has spent time as an investigator, but the bulk of her career has been committed to front-line policing. In the critical incident I shall describe, she ably rose to the challenge of being a leader both on and off-duty.

One early evening shift, in January 2004, she received information that a fellow Sergeant had been seriously injured in a shoot-out and another officer, whom she supervised, had mortally wounded the suspect. Once on scene, she assumed control of the situation. She ensured that the injured officer received treatment from EMS and that sufficient personnel were on hand to assist in the investigation. Adding to the tension, was the fact that not only was the location of two of her officers unknown, but so too was the location and status of the suspect. The officers were quickly found and it was determined that there were no known outstanding suspects.

The suspect was located lying next to a shotgun and a large amount of ammunition. EMS personnel attempted resuscitation efforts once officers had pulled him to a safe place. In the event there were unknown and armed suspects still at large, she established a tactical perimeter. She briefed divisional investigators as well as tactical officers, who were now on scene.

She saw to it that divisional personnel were relieved as soon as practicable and until relieved herself, she maintained command of the entire scene. Once back at the station, she updated command officers as well as conducted debriefings.

But she didn't stop there. She organized a 2nd debriefing the following day and offered support to all those in need. Recognizing the importance of and necessity for critical incident counseling, she made those arrangements as well.

She spent countless hours off-duty tending to the needs of her officers and of course, especially to those officers directly involved in the situation. She raised funds for outside services to assist the wounded officer's family. She was instrumental in another fund-raising effort that allowed the other involved officer to visit his family outside of Ontario. She has stood by and supported in endless other ways, officers from her platoon and the officers directly involved in the shooting. The wounded Sergeant directly attributes her strength, composure, deportment and support to his full recovery. He also states: "She not only carried me but she also had the weight of a wounded platoon on her shoulders....I know that because of her actions, 'C' platoon ended up being stronger and more cohesive than it was before my injury.

Her ongoing positive outlook and ability to influence others resulted in the affected platoon of officers continuing to function at an exemplary level. She was confronted with the insurmountable task of being both an affected party and the supervisor of other affected parties. She rose to the challenge and never let her personal healing process interfere or hinder either her function as a supervisor or her platoon's performance.