CAMROSE, Alta. – An aboriginal RCMP officer is attempting to use gang psychology in a positive way to stop youths from sliding into crime.
Const. Darryl Bruno, a 22 year veteran of the RCMP, has been working for 10 months on a program to persuade aboriginal youths to join a group. His idea is that if youths join a cadet corps on the four reserves near Hobbema, Alta., it will stop them from becoming gang members.
The police, working with reserve leadership and the local county in the Wetaskiwin district, have already trained the leaders and identified 200 young people aged 12-18 who want to join the cadets, Bruno told farm women at the Fall Focus conference in Camrose on Nov. 9.
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In another program to persuade aboriginal youths to stay in school, individual students are rewarded with an opportunity to be amateur disc jockeys for the day during the school’s lunchtime.
“The kids love their music,” said Bruno.
He noted that the stay-in-school work has been paying off because three years ago the Hobbema school graduated eight aboriginals. Last year it was 14 and this year 40.
Part of the problem is the attraction of a trust fund. When each Hobbema reserve resident turns 18, they are given a lump sum of $80,000-$100,000 as their share of the reserve’s oil revenue. Bruno said it is hard to get students to stay in school when they see the dollars. Although there were attempts to delay the trust fund allotment to a later age, that was rejected as unconstitutional.
Bruno said it’s crucial to make changes because 53 percent of the population on the Hobbema reserves is 18 or younger.
“We need to educate them to deal with their issues,” said Bruno.
He starts with the belief that “a child is not born a criminal but becomes a product of their environment.”
Housing, unemployment and violence are other problems that Bruno and the community are dealing with. He said there is not much difference between rural and urban crime with drugs and gangs.
He said he came to the reserve to be a positive role model. Even when young he wanted to be a police officer. His mother died when he was 12 and his alcoholic father used to beat him. He moved out on his own at age 16 and went to school because he saw it as the only way to succeed. At 18 he was drifting into alcohol problems with his friends but was pulled out of it by a strong belief in God.
“As a police officer, every day is a learning experience.”
Bruno noted that a highlight of his career was receiving the commissioner’s bravery award for rescuing two robbery suspects when their vehicle crashed and exploded into flames. He also said he was proud this summer when Hobbema elders wrapped him in a blanket and named him a true warrior. Bruno also was honoured to represent the RCMP in his red serge uniform for three weeks last December at a cultural event in Munich, Germany.
