Key takeaways:
- ‘I’d state you’ll never be willing to do something. Just dive right in and do it.’
- Melting Tallow expects her story to help convince other Indigenous youth to consider law enforcement a lifelong profession.
Const. Tasha Melting Tallow expects her story to help convince Indigenous youth to consider law enforcement a lifelong profession.
Melting Tallow, an associate of the Blood Tribe, participated in a Friday recruitment campaign in Stand Off, Alta., a Blackfoot neighborhood approximately 200 kilometers south of Calgary.
The 24-year-old stated she thought about being an officer in high school, but life put that goal on hold.
“I got expectant when I was 15. It’s crazy. I left it back and just did the mom stage for nearly seven years,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
After delivering her second kid, Melting Tallow said she met a Blood Tribe inspector who inspired her to apply.
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“I began the process where you reveal most of everything you’ve done in your past and all the bad things you’ve done. I received the callback, and here I am,” she stated with a laugh.
Spokespeople from the Blood Tribe Police, RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, Canadian Armed Forces, Calgary and Lethbridge police, and emergency assistance set up booths at a regional community hall in a mixture of a pancake breakfast and a professional day.
Melting Tallow told she expects to get through to some young people who may think the police are the foe.
“A lot of people look at cops and think we’re the wrong ones, but I don’t think people take the time to find out who we are,” she told.
“We’re just as human as anyone else. I think bringing young people is simply the intention behind policing. You can give back to your community.”
Source – CBC News
