Female officer suing WRPS starts advocacy group for women

Waterloo Regional Police Service Constable Angelina Rivers says, “We really don’t have a choice, it’s time for a culture shift in policing.”

Rivers is one of three current and former members of WRPS who have launched a $167-million sexual harassment lawsuit against the service.

And now, Rivers is launching a national advocacy group for women in policing, called the National Women in Law Enforcement Association.

She tells the Mike Farwell Show today, they’re just getting the ball rolling, and received their non-profit registration only on Thursday.

But Rivers says, we don’t have years to wait for the courts to make a decision, want to make a change.

She sees her group as a kind of common ground, or meeting place, for women to come forward with ideas how to change and fix things within policing.

Rivers says, “We’re done — women are done dealing with this, and the grace period is over and it’s time to get to work on fixing this issue.”

She adds, if it means having a member of her group on every Police Services Board in the country, she’s up for the challenge.

Rivers adds, unlike the reaction to the sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, where his circle of people and colleagues are shunning him now, in policing, they circle the wagons in support of the perpetrator, not the victim.

Rivers says does not believe anything has changed since the RCMP sexual harassment suit — in fact things are more the same than ever.

She is still a member of WRPS, but is out on stress leave.

Rivers filed her first complaint about harassment in 2013.

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