Force for good
Police officer Edward Parks believes in the power of example. In his community work, he’s seen first-hand the difference it can make
Edward Parks always wanted to be a police officer. Growing up in Port Huron, Mich., he was surrounded by positive policing role models. “The officers were part of the community,” he says. “They cheered kids on at baseball games, they ate lunch in the park and shared their sandwiches. If you played cops and robbers, you wanted to be the cop.”
Parks internalized that example of service. As a teen, he volunteered at summer camps; after university, he worked as a social worker in public housing for almost a decade. When he moved to Toronto, he was a runaway prevention officer at Covenant House. He brought troubled kids on walkabouts through neighbourhoods where he had forged relationships with people living mostly on the street. The people trusted Parks; they spoke candidly to the kids about how hard life was for them. “That experience of mutual respect and treating everybody as an equal helped me in my training to become a police officer,” he says.
Parks realized his childhood dream in 2008 and spent eight years working in primary response. In 2015, he became a neighbourhood officer in Regent Park. His job there was to connect with the community, to show the kids (and their parents) that cops could be role models.
“It changed the whole role of policing for me,” says Parks. “In primary response, you always have to respond to the next call.” As a neighbourhood officer, Parks and his colleagues organized high-school mentorship clubs, swimming lessons and classes in cooking and Lego. Parks taught “his” kids about everything from table manners to money management.
“Sometimes the community doesn’t want to reach out to police,” says Parks, who is cleareyed about why communities might be reluctant to do so. “Our job is to reach out a hand of friendship. The best way to build trust is by example. TV and social media glamorize the fast life, but they don’t always glamorize the person who works hard, goes to school and holds down several jobs.”
Parks is now a media relations officer with the police. He keeps in touch with the kids who call him “Officer Ed.” They call him up after his press conferences to tease him about his grey hair or the number of times he said “um.” They also press him about the problems with policing — not every officer is Officer Ed. Parks understands that. He listens. “It’s a time to dig deep, to listen and to learn from each other,” he says.
More than anything, he wants kids to believe in their own futures. Recently, he helped a young woman with a troubled home life apply to Ryerson. “She’s a young person who understands that the issues of the streets are always going to be there for her,” he says. “Still, she wants more.”
TV and social media glamorize the fast life, but they don’t always glamorize the person who works hard, goes to school and holds down several jobs.”