After being installed as Edmonton police chief last year, Warren Driechel, Management Studies ’92, has a unique understanding of how MacEwan fits into the downtown community, and the role the institution plays in preparing the city’s future emergency responders.

We sat down to speak with Driechel about his time at MacEwan and his hopes for the future of Edmonton.

What brought you to MacEwan?

In high school, I was interested in becoming a police officer, and I started to look at the different programs. The law enforcement program MacEwan had at the time caught my eye, but I ended up settling on business management. I worked in marketing for several years, and it gave me a different perspective on the world. 

What drives your passion for policing?

The impact on people – more than we often know. We got a letter recently from a mother. Her son had gotten a ticket from a police officer – not usually a positive experience, but he was a young man in a place of crisis and had been thinking of harming himself. The police officer who issued that ticket treated him like a human, and that positive influence changed his perspective. When the young man relayed the story to his mom, he said that interaction kept him safe in that moment. 

How do EPS, MacEwan and other key organizations come together to contribute to the fabric of the city's core?

It's very unique to have a university the size of MacEwan right in your downtown. It’s a community within the community that creates a vibrant environment and draws people to our city and our downtown in a way that depends on safe transit, safe streets and safe public environments.

Your thoughts about MacEwan’s new Bachelor of Public Safety and Justice degree?

It creates an environment where people can enter a law enforcement career with a specific education. We look for people with a variety of education and life experiences, but this program is very focused and that adds credibility to applicants. We’ve relied quite a bit on MacEwan in the past, not just for law enforcement applicants, but also for emergency dispatchers. There is a very close relationship between the Edmonton Police Service and MacEwan thanks to the training offered here.

What makes you hopeful?

Meeting the needs of the city isn’t just about enforcement. It's also about dealing with some of the root causes of crime. How can we work differently with people involved in crime so it’s not just a justice response, but a social response that assists people to get out of that cycle. That's a big change in policing that makes me hopeful for the future.

What would you say to students interested in policing?

Education, life experiences and resilience are important for this job. It's a great career, and I really cherish the relationships that I've been able to build. You can be a patrol officer one day, and working in a canine unit the next. You can be a flight operator in a helicopter or a homicide detective. It is literally an endless number of jobs in a single career. If you have the right attitude and you look at it through the right lens, you can walk out with a real sense of purpose.

What does greatness mean to you?

Greatness is knowing you've had an impact – that you've contributed something. It can mean many different things to different people, but to me it’s being able to hold your head high knowing you've made a change in your community.