Sgt. Jeff Campbell said farewell to Cochrane last week as he traded in his sergeant hat for an investigator role with the Federal Enforcement Unit.
“Cochrane has that small-town feel, people want to have community connection and even though people are very vocal about what they don’t like it can be a good, it shows they want to take part and be involved … they don’t sit back,” Campbell reflected over coffee.
“I will miss the people the most.”
Campbell has been in the field for 20 years, serving seven years with Calgary Police Services (CPS) and 13 years with the RCMP. After working across western Canada, he found himself leaving Lake Louise in February 2015 to work his second stint at the Cochrane detachment, this time as a sergeant.
“I saw a lot of rapid changes and we flipped over a lot of personnel, but there is resiliency in the community,” Campbell said.
Despite having a busy year with some fatalities and homicides, Campbell said he is most impressed by residents that call Cochrane home.
“I have seen the community rally together in the face of tragedies and support each other – that hasn’t changed,” Campbell said.
After his short stint as a sergeant in the community, Campbell will now be calling Calgary his work home as he transfers departments and becomes a Special Investigator with the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (A.S.I.R.T.).
Campbell’s new duties will include investigating incidents involving Alberta’s police officers that have resulted in serious injury or death to any person, including, officers involved shootings causing injury or death, using force causing injury or death, and injury or death of a person while in custody of police.
Special Investigators also handle serious and sensitive allegations of police misconduct, on and off duty, including corruption, breach of trust, trafficking controlled substances and sexual assault.
Campbell said ASIRT officers do not have authority to accept cases about police behaviour from the general public, instead public complaints must be made directly to the involved police agency, where the investigators will then work alongside officers in the case.
Timeline of investigations depend on a case-by-case basis and when completed a final report is submitted to the executive director of ASIRT.
From the time he was in elementary school, Campbell said he always knew he wanted to be a police officer, and when the position was opened for a Special Investigator with ASIRT, he knew it would be a “natural fit.”
“I have background in rural and large area policing and I am what the RCMP uses as a subject matter resource, where people can come to me with questions regarding debriefing of situations,” Campbell explained.
During his time in Cochrane, Campbell handled public relations regarding serious incidents and while he said he enjoyed that, he is excited to start working where he can find ways to improve practices for police officers.
“I just hope I left Cochrane in a better place,” Campbell said.
