Olds RCMP Cpl. Courtney Harding is happy to be back in the general area where she grew up.
Harding joined Olds RCMP a few months ago. Her previous post was in Hinton, where she served for four years.
She was born in Calgary, but grew up in the Spruce View area, the daughter of a single mom.
"Growing up in Spruce View was -- it's home; close to home. It's as close to home as I can be without being directly in Innisfail, at the detachment there," Harding says.
"So for me, it's wonderful. I can head right up Range Road 23, head over to Dickson Dam and it feels like home to me. So I feel very lucky to be able to be so close after four years of being out of the area that way.
"I don't think I realized how much I'd miss it until I was gone; away from friends and family. So it was a really good feeling to be back," she adds.
"And I missed -- of all things -- the farmers' fields and the storms that we get here.
"It's just really nice to be close to amenities and I know Olds is a beautiful, clean town."
Harding always wanted to be an RCMP officer. She can recall how and when that happened.
"I was a girl guide and when I was 10, we went on a field trip to the Innisfail RCMP detachment. That was back when they had the actual bars on the cell doors," Harding says.
"So we took a tour of the detachment. I left the detachment that night and I decided when I was grown up I was going to be an RCMP member," she adds. "I decided right then."
She started out serving as an auxiliary constable at the Innisfail RCMP detachment. After taking general studies at Red Deer College, Harding moved to Regina to take training to become an RCMP officer.
"I've been an RCMP member now for about 12-and-a-half years," she says proudly.
After graduation from basic training, Harding's first post was with what was then known as the Hobbema detachment. It's now known as the Maskwacis detatchment.
Maskwacis has a reputation for being the scene of some pretty violent incidents, but Harding loved it.
"I was there for six years; had a lot of really unique experience there and it was a very challenging post, but probably my favourite to date," she says.
"I was fortunate enough to work for the board of directors with the local women's shelter there on-reserve and I was able to spearhead a project there for a family violence unit. So I got to work with a lot of high-risk, at-risk women and children.
"We specialized in investigations with high-risk families. I worked directly with social workers and children's services there and (at an) on-reserve shelter. So that was rewarding.
"I got to work on a number of search warrants and unfortunately homicides and gun complaints and persons crimes," she adds.
After that, Harding was transferred to the Red Deer city detachment where she served for about two-and-a-half years.
She was then transferred to Hinton RCMP as a corporal, where she served for about four years.
In Olds, Harding's primary responsibilities are media relations as well as assisting with the obtaining and processing of exhibits (evidence).
She also supervises general duty police officers and goes out with them on higher-risk calls.
Harding describes those kinds of calls.
"Any sudden death, any domestic disputes that might be in progress, gun complaints," she says.
"Anything where the guys or girls -- the constables -- need backup, of course I'll back them up accordingly and just make sure that investigations are proceeding how they should be."
Harding loves her job.
"It's challenging, and I think -- I like to learn and in this career, you never stop learning. I come to work every day and I'm always learning something new that I never knew before. It just never stops changing," she says.
"Case law is changing, the way we investigate things is changing, units are changing, policies and procedures are changing.
"So we're always changing in our day-to-day investigations, and as a supervisor, you're expected to keep up with that so you can properly supervise the guys and the girls out on the floor.
"So it's the challenge of it, honestly, that keeps me going," she adds.
A major goal for Harding is to develop special projects or strategies to deal with crime in the community.
"Based on what I'm seeing so far, I do recognize there are a number of calls coming out in the rural areas so I can definitely see that that's a concern with the community," she says.
When not working, Harding has a whole other set of challenges.
Harding is married. The couple has six children; the youngest are four-year-old twins.
"So we're busy," she says with a laugh.
