Police officer honoured for dedication to community

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A working life devoted to protecting and enhancing his community has garnered a Regina police officer a prestigious award from an Aboriginal organization.

At the end of October Women of the Dawn presented Regina Police Services (RPS) Cpl. Jim Pratt with an award honoring his service to Saskatchewan's Aboriginal community.

"I was very honoured to receive that," said Pratt. "I was humbled.

"These are people who work with me and who have supported me. If they didn't work with me I would never have received this award, much less do the things that I've been able to help with."

For much of his policing career Pratt has worked with Regina's youth and the Aboriginal community. He said he wants to provide an example for today's Aboriginal youth.

"Dreams and visions will come true if you work hard," he said.

Born on the Muscowpetung First Nation, Pratt went to school in Edenwold and Cupar, small farming communities northeast of Regina.

Pratt found his role model one day when he was attending school in Cupar and an RCMP officer visited his school.

"He was someone I looked up to as a role model ... He treated people fairly, but firmly as well," he said.

"That put the dream into my head. I wanted to be a police officer."

But Pratt's career path wasn't a straight one. He twice dropped out of high school.

"My father kept on telling me that if I wanted to be someone, that I had to get an education," he said.

After getting his Grade 12 in 1975, Pratt joined the RCMP through its Native Special Constable program.

"After two years, I wanted to come back to Regina."

Four years after leaving the RCMP, Pratt applied and was accepted into the RPS, where he's spent the past 22 years.

He spent the first 14 years of his career as a patrol officer before being transferred into some of the force's social programs. He spent two years with the family services division and two years at a community police office in Regina's North Central area, and is now in his fourth year with the RPS community and cultural unit, established in 1983.

Since being assigned to the unit Pratt has worked extensively on programs for Regina's inner city youth. It's a process of bridge-building within the community in order to deal with the roots of crime, he said.

"To get to basics, you have to listen to the people at the grass roots," he said "You have to spend time with them in the community. They have to tell you what's going on. You have to work with all sides."

In 1998, an outbreak of car thefts swept Regina, perpetrated by a group of young offenders. In addition to arresting the young people and bringing them to the court system, the RPS created community advisory boards as a way for the RPS and Aboriginal leaders to work together to find ways to get the community's youth to turn away from a life of crime.

In 1997 Pratt helped launch a camp for young offenders in Lebret. After consultation with community Elders, the camps were moved to the Nekaneet First Nation in southwestern Saskatchewan. "The Elders recommended Nekaneet because many of the people there practice their traditional ways," said Pratt.

During each summer camp, in-custody young offenders will spend seven days learning and taking part in pipe ceremonies, medicine walks, and a horse program. In addition the offenders meet inmates from Ochimaw Ohci, the nearby women's healing lodge.

"The ladies who serve time there relay their knowledge of what they've done, and why it's important to stay on the right path," said Pratt.

The camps are a combination project of the RPS, the Paul Dojak Centre and the department of Community Relations and Employment. Fourteen such camps have been held at Nekaneet since 2001. Between 14 to 17 youth, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, take part in each camp.

Pratt has also helped the RPS create an Elders' advisory council. It is made up of seven Elders who live in or near Regina, representing all the area boriginal peoples.

"They advise us if we're doing anything wrong," he said. "If anything should go wrong in the city, they can advise us so that we aren't closed off from the community.

Pratt's latest project for the RPS is establishing the Community Cadet Corps. Based on a project initiated by the RCMP in northern Saskatchewan, the corps is designed for inner-city Regina youth age 12 to 18. The participants learn about personal responsibility, leadership and teamwork. Participating youth must go to school and maintain good grades.

Youth in the Community Cadet Corps meet twice a week from the end of September to June. One group meets in the Albert Scott Community Centre in Regina's north central area. Another group meets in Regina's core area at the Al Ritchie Centre.

"Sometimes we forget about the kids who do good," said Pratt. We want to recognize kids who get good grades, who stay in school."

Pratt has some words of encouragement, and of warning, for Aboriginal youth-education is important for the future.

"Our youth have to obtain an education," he said. "In the next 20 or 30 years, our society is going to need educated Aboriginal youth to take over from my generation. In order to get that, they should take advantage of any breaks they can get in order to achieve the next step."