Justin Krikler was always interested in law enforcement, but within a few years of graduating law school, he found himself working as a litigation lawyer in Calgary and Edmonton. But he kept finding himself drifting back to where the law hits the streets.
“Perhaps there was a gravitational pull that I was unaware of,” Krikler says, reflecting on a journey that started with working with incarcerated youth at the Edmonton Young Offender Centre and led him to his current role as Chief Administrative Officer of the Edmonton Police Service. “[My] move into the world of law enforcement happened because of a desire to be involved in the justice system and know what the contact between police and the public looks like in a contemporary environment.”
The transition from lawyering to policing meant going from managing a few dozen files to the over 3,000 employees that make up the EPS. Krikler’s tenure has also seen an increased focus on recruiting, with the EPS looking to be more intentional about the makeup of the city’s police force.
“There’s been a strong desire to ensure that we’re recruiting diverse talent from across different communities and backgrounds who are going to bring different skills into policing,” Krikler says of the EPS’s current approach to hiring. “One of our defined interests is building leadership and how we create a legacy that builds the leaders of tomorrow to continue to evolve policing to be responsive to community needs.”
This article appears in the Nov/Dec 2024 issue of Edify
