OPP officer Deb McClure will always remember the call; to a report of a 17-yearold male drowning.
Driving to the location, she was picturing a teen flailing in the water. She arrived to a pond on a rural property where members of a large Mennonite family yelled, “our brother is in the water.”
She didn’t see him. Not thinking to remove her heavy gear, she jumped into the water. Nothing. Her clothes and equipment started dragging her down. She felt like she was going to drown at one point.
Back-up arrived. She was able to strip off some of the weight and was tied off from shore. She dove in again, this time finding the boy. She brought him back to the surface.
“We did revive him, but then, unfortunately, about three days later, he passed away.” She received a Commissioners Citation for Bravery award.
McClure is seated at her desk at her new job: detachment commander for the Haliburton Highlands OPP.
“I definitely realize I have a lot to learn as a commander, but I can relate to the guys,” McClure says. “I’m okay to share those adversities I’ve been through. It’s not an easy career. I think the fact I’m able to talk at their level … I’ve had to take a knee before, I’ve seen some bad things; I think my openness and genuineness with individuals, that’s a skill.”
She said when she joined the police force more than 20 years ago, officers didn’t talk about mental health, or the need for selfcare. She said she was told, ‘you shut up, and you suck it up’. “And that’s what you did …to my own detriment. It came to a boiling point numerous years later. Now, I just want to remind my guys it’s okay to talk about it. I’ll share my journey.”
She hopes to extend those people skills to community members, too. “I can’t wait to get settled and actually out and be involved off-duty. It’s not just going to be a job for me. I think that’s what I’ll bring to the table. The other stuff I can learn. I can learn to write a report…”
She has come from the South Bruce OPP detachment, where she was detachment manager. She began her career with the Toronto Police Service in 2002.
Cottage country posting
As a teen, McClure grew up in Bancroft, where her family had a motel – so she knows about living, and working, in cottage country.
“I spent every summer up in this area and just loved it. I basically said after that ‘I’m going to live there one day’.”
That opportunity presented itself earlier this year with Mike Cavanagh leaving the detachment.
“When I finally did bring it (the idea) home and started talking about it with my children and my partner, the very next day I went onto our site for jobs, and it (the Highlands post) was there and I thought, ‘this is my dream, I’m going to go for it’.”
She likes that it is “a very junior detachment.” She did some homework and came up to spend a few days with Cavanagh.
“I liked that I was going to have a challenge of recruiting people here because I do really feel as soon as you get here, it’s a hidden gem. It is beautiful here, Haliburton, Minden, it’s all gorgeous.”
It’s early days, less than a month, and McClure said she is watching, observing and listening. She said the team is “very keen and eager and they’re out there. I would love more community engagement but, again, the issue with a smaller detachment is there’s calls to be done.”
Asked about a bit of a “revolving door” with commanders in the Highlands, McClure said one never knows what the future holds, including her personal life, or OPP plans for her.
However, “all I can say to you, community members and my family here now is that I have moved. I am four hours from my dad and sister, my (grown up) kids…I’m invested that way. I have less than seven (years to go) and I’d like to retire here, but I can’t promise that. I have no control.”
