Carolyn Anne Molyneaux

Divisions Served: “F”

Pillar Location: Pillar VII, Row 30, Column C

Story: 

My name is Carolyn Anne Molyneaux. I was raised in Brampton, Ontario. While waiting to join the RCMP during a hiring freeze in the mid-1980’s, I obtained my Bachelor of Arts in Physical Education and Sociology. I then received my Bachelor of Education degree. A few months before graduating with my Bachelor of Ed, I received the very exciting call that the RCMP had hired me and I was to start at Depot shortly after university. Policing had never been in my family nor had I had a desire until I met an amazing sociology professor at university who ultimately became my junior and senior thesis mentor. He actually took a sabbatical and did a doctorate degree by immersing himself in the prison system.

Being a police officer for 34 years was an absolutely amazing career! There is not a better occupation that provides incredible opportunities to work in a huge variety of different areas and to work alongside amazing people in strong team-oriented environments.

Even though I only spent 3 ½ years with the RCMP in Tisdale, Saskatchewan, the experiences there provided me a strong background in learning basic and advanced police skills in a short time period. The Tisdale Detachment covered a large policing area that hosted a variety of small communities, including the Kinistin Saulteaux Nation. It taught me amazing communication, conflict resolution and investigative skills, skills which helped me quickly transition to municipal policing with the Peel Regional Police Service (Ontario) for the next 30 ½ years.

As a young officer with the RCMP in a small rural community (I was raised in a large urban centre next to Toronto), I was incredibly fortunate to work a variety of investigations (from theft of gas from a farm to a second-degree homicide and everything imaginable in between), opportunities that rarely a large municipal officer gets to experience in their career, never mind in 3 ½ years. I quickly learned, and fully embraced, that successful policing in this type of rural environment is truly an experience that invokes the ideology of Sir Robert Peel when he said that “the police are the community and the community are the police.” What an absolutely amazing 3 ½-year-experience I had in Tisdale, living and working exactly as Sir Robert Peel envisioned a police officer should. The small-town community embraced me as one of their own, but I certainly had to earn it. I immersed myself in sports and other social events. This experience greatly impacted my desire to want to live and work my entire life in a small rural environment but with a city within an hour’s drive (Tisdale was a little further, being some 2 ½ hours from a decent-sized city…ha ha…). I eventually got my dream shortly after retiring and am now living in a gorgeous small community, with Toronto being an hour’s drive away.

After joining Peel Regional Police, I started in uniform patrol for three years, moving on to the Fraud Bureau for seven years as an investigator (led and was part of numerous major cases and joint-forces investigations). I then went to Internal Affairs for a year, Uniform Patrol for a year at Toronto Pearson Airport, then the Recruiting Bureau for nine months. I was then promoted to Sergeant, and posted to the Diversity Relations Bureau for five years as the Officer-in-Charge. After that I went back to Divisional Uniform as a Patrol Sergeant for three years, then moved in to a Divisional Criminal Investigation Branch for two years as an investigator. After that I spent two years at the Organizational Process Management Unit, then moved on as a Detective with the Special Victims Unit (SVU). I was promoted to Uniform Staff Sergeant from SVU, retiring three years later. What an incredible journey I had, learning how to respect every community member I came across (whether in conflict situations dealing with arrested individuals, victims or witnesses, or community-based charity and social events), and every officer and civilian member I had the absolute pleasure to work with.

Thank you so much to all my ‘policing families’ over the 34 years I worked alongside for providing life-long friendships and memories! I am now retired and enjoying the life of fitness, sports, hobbies, and being with family and friends. I do miss my teammates very much, especially having been so blessed with being able to have so many different teammates during my 34-year-career. For those of you interested in policing, or if you know someone who is, there is not a better career out there for variety, transfer and promotional opportunities, belonging, job stability (benefits and pay), and literally new experiences almost every minute of every shift. As you progress in your career, the opportunity to mentor other officers and civilian staff is simply amazing.