Thunder Bay woman proves the power of numbers in Aboriginal policing

A criminal intelligence analyst with the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service was honoured Saturday with the Ontario Women in Law Enforcement civilian achievement award, for her outstanding support of her colleagues.

Jennifer Duncan, who works in Thunder Bay, jokes she is "genetically driven to be a public servant" and work in policing.

Her sister was a police dispatcher, and her father, brother and many cousins were all police officers.

But Duncan fights crime from her computer, where she carefully studies and tracks all the latest data, trends and statistics.

What she often finds is that the best way to reduce crime is to address the needs of young people in the 34 First Nations communities served by NAPS.

Superior Morning6:26Jennifer Duncan - Award

She doesn't carry a badge but the work of Jennifer Duncan is equally important for the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service. And she is being recognized for her efforts behind the scene.

'Make adifference at the end of the day'

For Duncan that means using her research on youth crime to help design, and find funding for programs she believes will help keep at-risk kids out of the justice system.

"I get so emotionally involved when I'm writing these grant applications because I want to see them be successful because really it's helping people and it means so much to me to see when these programs do something and change something and make a difference at the end of the day," said Duncan.

Her initiatives have included a fire safety and anti-arson program for kids aged 7 years to 12 years, creating the position of community youth officer and Project Northstar, which educated young people about the reality of gang life.

Young people were taught about why gangs want to recruit them, how they might be recruited and the impact on their life if they decided to join.

'Motivated to do more'

Since the program's inception, there has been a decline in youth gangs, said Duncan.

"We can't say it's all because of Project Northstar but we do like to think that arming these kids with education allowed them to make better choices."

To date, Duncan's grant applications have brought NAPSan extra $400,000 in funding.

"We're so poorly funded as a police service that all of this autonomous funding just does so much for us, and we make it do more than it should because we don't have any extras," said Duncan, who has travelled to many of the communities served by NAPS officers.

"Seeing the kids, and talking to them makes everything worthwhile, and makes me even more motivated to do more."