Two dozen students receive First Nations Safety Officer certificates at Assiniboine

Two dozen students from 14 First Nations communities, one-third of them female and some from more than 1,000 km north of Brandon, have received their certificates in the First Nations Safety Officer (FNSO) program at Assiniboine Community College.

Photo at top: More than two dozen students receive their certificates in the First Nations Safety Officer program offered at Assiniboine Community College.

Assiniboine began offering provincially-approved mandatory training for First Nations and community safety officers in January 2016. More than 220 students have successfully completed this training since then.

Graduates of the program receive a certificate which allows them to be appointed as a First Nations Safety Officer.

The FNSO program also provides avenues for the specialized training of students in communities that face unique public safety needs, as well as offering the skills to provide proactive crime prevention strategies for use by graduates when returning home.

Now that their three-week training program is complete, officers will become responsible for crime prevention, enforcing band bylaws and some specific provincial laws.

FNSOs work closely with local law enforcement agencies throughout the province to enhance public safety in their communities.

Jack Ewatski, former chief of the Winnipeg Police Service, facilitates the program.

Theodore Letandre, right, from Pinyamootang First Nation, receives his First Nations Safety Officer certificate from Wes Courchene, left, director of First Nations policing for Manitoba Justice and Sheryl Prouse, interim dean of health and human services at Assiniboine Community College.