Edmonton police are pledging to make their workplace more welcoming and attractive to women as they work to increase female representation within the service. The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) has joined 30 Forward, a campaign that encourages police services across Canada to recruit, retain and advance women, with the goal of women making up 30 per cent of personnel. EPS says women have accounted for about 23 per cent of its workforce over the past five years. “We are looking at capitalizing on different ways and different strategies that are used across the nation to improve cultural bits that maybe other people have either struggled with or have experience with that we can employ to either reduce or minimize and/or to make sure we don’t go down that path,” EPS Deputy Chief Andria Wasylyshen told an audience Wednesday at the Building Bridges Evidence-Based Policing Conference at the JW Marriott. Police Chief Warren Driechel formally signed the pledge at the conference. As part of the initiative, Edmonton police are committing to family supports, an inclusive workplace culture, mentorship opportunities and equity programs. Driechel told reporters that creating more opportunities for women within EPS is “something we talk about all the time.” “We’ve now designed leadership frameworks to assess at each rank – how many females are in those ranks, who’s in that stream now for promotion – and we’ll continue to do that,” he said. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny
