27 SENIOR ABUSE AWARENESS by Dave Stewart Charlottetown's new Deputy Police Chief drew strength from tragedy in her career Jennifer McCarron is the first woman to hold the position in department history CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - Jennifer McCarron chokes back tears as she remembers one of her first calls as a police officer – a woman handing over her granddaughter, begging for help. McCarron, who was officially named deputy chief with Charlottetown Police Services on July 18, and her partner were called to a house about a two-year-old in distress. “We got there before the ambulance,’’ McCarron said in an interview at the police station on Aug. 5. “The grandmother handed me the baby and said, ‘Help her.’ She was already dead.’’ McCarron did everything she could, but she couldn’t save the child. “I was doing CPR on a child that had already passed away. I will never forget that. I tried everything. When I went home that night, I hugged my two kids and thought, ‘that could have been them.’ ’’ Longtime dream McCarron wipes away tears as she takes a moment to compose herself before explaining that being a police officer and helping people has always been her dream. In an interviewwith SaltWire Network on Aug. 5, McCarron, who is the first woman to serve in the role as deputy police chief in Charlottetown in the department’s history, talked about what shaped her career and where she wants to see the force head. She had been interim deputy chief since April 2021. McCarron also recounts a call that came in not long after the tragedy with the baby. She was one of the first officers on the scene in October 2002 when a fire broke out in a two-storey home on Hensley Street. Adam Noble, an 11-year-old Grade 6 student at Prince Street Elementary School, died in the fire. “We tried so hard to get him out. We tried to form a chain to get into the house to get him,’’ McCarron said. “That was my first time entering a fire. I was the fourth one in the chain, but we just couldn’t get in. It turned out that his grandmother worked at the daycare my kids were at.’’ McCarron said dealing with fatalities is the hardest part of the job, a lesson she learned right away. Before she was hired by the department 27 years ago, McCarron worked for the force as a dispatcher. A young man was killed near the Maypoint intersection, but he wasn’t carrying identification, so police issued a media release. A friend of the young man recognized the description of the deceased and called the young man’s mother. On July 18, Charlottetown Police Services officially named Jennifer McCarron as deputy chief, the first woman in the department’s history to hold the position. She’s pictured outside the station on Aug. 5. Dave Stewart/The Guardian Jennifer McCarron, centre, chats Aug. 5 with TaraWatts, left, a detective with the major crime unit, and Const.Tim Keizer. - Dave Stewart/The Guardian continued
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