KENTVILLE, N.S. — For a member of the Kentville Police Service (KPS) who was recently promoted, it would be more than cliché to say his career is a dream come true.
Kevin Pick said he is very honoured to be promoted from constable to sergeant with the KPS. He had a year of training and four years of service with the Halifax Regional Police before getting the chance to move home and join the KPS. He’s been with the KPS for 12 years now.
“It’s nice that the department has put the faith in me to look after some stuff and take on some more responsibility and I’ll try to do the best I can,” Sgt. Pick said.
He has wanted to be a police officer since the time he was a small child. Throughout life, he hasn’t wanted to be anything else. It took him a while to break into the field, working as a teacher for almost eight years before getting a chance to join the Halifax force in 2003 at age 29.
As part of his promotion ceremony, Pick was presented with his badge by Sgt. Wilf Andrews. Andrews is one of Pick’s former sergeants. With the shift Pick is currently working, he’s technically taking Andrews’s spot.
“Wilf was a bit of a mentor to me for this,” Pick said. “Without Wilf’s help, I don’t think I’d be here right now.”
Pick said Andrews taught him a lot when it comes to how to deal with and treat people in general, as well as those you are working with. Andrews also imparted a great deal of knowledge on the inner workings of the police service to Pick.
Another aspect of his promotion in rank that he’ll never forget is the involvement of his daughters in the ceremony. Each daughter attached one of the sergeant’s epaulets to his shoulders.
“It was very special, I had a tear in my eye for sure,” Pick said. “My first daughter was born just as I started my career in policing and just as I was leaving Halifax Regional, my second daughter was born.”
When it comes to police work, the part Pick has always enjoyed most is patrolling in uniform in a marked police car, responding to calls and dealing with the public. Now he’ll get to see this aspect from another perspective – in a supervisory role.
He said there are two members on his shift who are fairly new to the profession. They are quite keen and bring the latest in police training to the job. Pick said this has served as a bit of a refresher for him and he hopes he can serve as a mentor to them.
“I hope I do half as good a job as Wilf did with me,” Pick said.
Pick grew up in Port Williams and now lives in Kentville. He went through high school here and attended Acadia University. He said getting to move home has been a very positive experience and Kentville is a great town to work for and to police.
“I’ve enjoyed my time here and hopefully I have a few years left in me.”
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