Sheldon Herman, 31, just started his new position as a constable with the Osoyoos detachment of the RCMP last week. Herman asked for a transfer from Kelowna after serving in that city for the first seven years of his career. Herman said he’s looking forward to meeting local residents, talking to and working with children and getting involved in more community policing initiatives in our community. (Keith Lacey photo)
Sheldon Herman is proudly carrying on the family tradition of serving and protecting – and he’s thrilled to be continuing his career here in Osoyoos.
Herman, 31, has officially started the latest chapter of his policing career with the RCMP detachment in Osoyoos.
He transferred to Osoyoos after spending the past seven years as a constable in Kelowna.
Herman follows in the footsteps of his father Randy, who served 36 years with the RCMP, and his mother Tammy, who served more than 30 years with the RCMP and recently retired and moved to Osoyoos.
“The fact that my mother chose Osoyoos to enter into retirement and the fact that I ended up here while looking for a transfer is completely coincidental,” said Herman. “This all happened in the past couple of months. I didn’t know that she was looking at Osoyoos when looking for a place to retire to and she didn’t know that I was applying for a transfer or that the transfer would bring me here.”
When he was a young man growing up in Maple Ridge, where his parents served most of their respective RCMP careers, Herman said becoming a police officer was nowhere near the top of his list of priorities.
“I was an avid mountain bike racer and mountain bike mechanic and was really hoping to make a career out of that,” he said. “But I got into a pretty serious accident and ruptured my spleen and that was pretty much the end of those dreams.”
When he was 19, his parents more or less told him they wanted him to become an auxiliary officer with the RCMP, so he reluctantly signed up.
“I really wasn’t interested, but both my parents insisted and I really didn’t have a choice in the matter,” he said smiling.
His attitude changed immediately after his very first shift as an auxiliary officer.
“I can still remember that first shift as if it happened yesterday,” he said. “It was just crazy and non-stop from the second I jumped in the police cruiser.
“There was a robbery, a long foot pursuit, a couple of other incidents and I just loved it. I got out of that patrol car and told the officers I was working with, ‘sign me up’. I was hooked.”
Herman found a job as an emergency dispatcher and waited patiently for his application to get into the RCMP college in Regina, Sask.
He was finally accepted in early 2007 and spent six months in formal training before graduating and being offered a job as a constable in Kelowna.
He worked in Kelowna for seven years before applying for a transfer a couple of months ago.
“I was very fortunate and blessed to get the posting in Kelowna,” he said. “I grew up in the Lower Mainland and really didn’t like the traffic and hated the weather and getting a posting in the Okanagan was about as good as it gets when you graduate from police college.
“I really loved my seven years in Kelowna, but I really needed a change of pace because that city is growing so fast and there has been a dramatic increase in crime the past couple of years.
“It was becoming so busy that all I did was run and run some more to call after call and there was simply no time ever to do things like community policing and proactive policing. There was no chance to mix with kids or play sports. I just needed a change.”
Getting transferred to Osoyoos is another stroke of incredible luck as he will be able to achieve his goals of getting more involved in community policing and working with youth, while still enjoying the great weather and lifestyle offered in the South Okanagan, he said.
“I’m truly blessed to have been able to land here in Osoyoos,” he said. “I’m a real people person and I’m really looking forward to meeting business owners, working with kids and being able to do community policing, which is something I just never got the chance to do in Kelowna.”
Another top priority will be his passion to get as many drunk drivers off the road as he possibly can, said Herman.
His father was struck and seriously injured when hit by a drunk driver while on duty several years ago and physical complications sustained as a result of his injuries led to his diagnosis of terminal cancer and eventual early death a couple of years later in 2006, he said.
“Because of what happened to my father, I’m very, very passionate about catching impaired drivers,” he said. “In one year alone in Kelowna in 2012, I arrested 148 people for impaired driving, which I’ve been told is the most of any police officer in Canada that year.
“There is simply no excuse for drunk driving. It’s completely preventable. But so many people still do it and they are destroying families. If I can prevent one family from having to go through what my family went through and can prevent one death or serious injury as a result of catching an impaired driver, then I’m doing my job.”
Herman said he plans to spend at least the next five years of his career in Osoyoos and is very much looking forward to becoming a part of the community.
“I love people and I’m really looking forward to becoming involved in the community,” he said. “I’ve already met so many people who have gone out of their way to be friendly to me and I know I’m going to love it here.”
Herman has no doubt he will remain an RCMP officer for many years to come.
“Like both of my parents, I’m a career officer for sure,” he said. “I bleed RCMP. I’m really looking forward to enjoying the next phase of my career here in Osoyoos.”
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
