MOOSE JAW — A young girl goes missing in Wakamow Valley while riding her bike and the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) sends its members to find her, leading to her safe recovery and return home.
That’s the heartstring-tugging storyline for a recruitment video the police service has released after working with Jared Robinson of Nebulus Entertainment.
Besides the emotionally charged search — which includes the K-9 unit, the remotely piloted aircraft system unit, the communications centre and the community strategic services unit — the film’s second half features the tactical response team training at the former Valley View Centre.
The MJPS officially unveiled the recruitment video during the Board of Police Commissioners’ Feb. 19 meeting. The video can be found at mjpolice.ca.
“I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out,” Robinson said.
Acting Chief Rick Johns explained that the agency wants to bolster its recruiting capabilities and fill vacant roles and has searched for ways to do that. So, the organization partnered last year with Robinson, who was tasked with assessing how to meet those recruiting goals.
Robinson worked with Jay-D Haughton, the MJPS’s public information manager, with the latter offering some input on what the police service wanted to see, Johns continued. However, Robinson was basically given free rein to create what he wanted.
The deputy chief added that the professional filmographer “has produced just an incredible product.”
Robinson explained that he wanted to make a video that was different from other policing agencies’ films and that showcased Moose Jaw instead of just showing officers doing daily tasks. This meant creating a storyline that featured the “human side” of policing, which people should connect with.
The video has two parts, so Robinson thought they could roll them out separately and for different purposes. Meanwhile, even though the video was two minutes long, it took hours to put it together — eight months from start to finish — especially since he played many instruments to create the musical score.
Besides producing a video that hopefully influenced officers serving elsewhere to join the MJPS, the filmographer added he wanted to encourage young people to consider policing as an exciting profession.
“Sign me up!” exclaimed Commissioner Patrick Boyle.
This is a great video, especially compared to other police recruiting films that are “pretty standard,” he said, noting his creative side enjoyed every minute of the storyline. He also thought the video was timely considering the MJPS must fill eight provincially funded positions and other vacancies.
Nebulus Entertainment and the MJPS will explore ways to showcase this video wherever it can, including showing a shortened version at WHL games and on TV, said Robinson. He also has a small budget for social media advertisements, while city hall has also agreed to promote it.
Haughton said he would feature the film on the MJPS’s social media channels and its website, while Johns said the agency would play the video at recruiting and job fairs.
“We’re going get as much mileage out of the video and make sure we’re reaching a wide targeted audience, not just locally but hopefully across Canada … ,” the acting chief continued.
With a chuckle, Johns added that he doubted acting was something the participating officers expected to do, but he thought they did a great job.
Said board chairman James Murdock, “Very well done. Very impressive.”
Johns later told reporters that the video gave him “goosebumps” and said that while officers’ daily activities can sometimes be “mundane,” other times, everyone is called in for certain missions.
The acting chief thought the video’s contrast of emotion and action was also well-done, while it captured two different — but important — areas of policing. He also thought that compared to other agencies’ videos, this one was “next level.”
The next police board meeting is Wednesday, March 19.
