Diana McDaniel’s policing career has seen her patrolling the streets of New Westminster, doing undercover work, working on the missing women task force, and tackling initiatives around mental health, homelessness and diversity.
It’s also seen her rise to the rank of inspector –making her the first female officer to reach that milestone in the New Westminster Police Department.
“As far as other women and having a woman in this position, yes, I think it is very, very important,” she says. “I never had that or never even thought it was possible.”
McDaniel had been working as a legal assistant and pondering a career in social work when she decided to pursue policing.
“I thought this would be a career where you’d definitely have a lot of variety. And you know, there’s a lot of social work involved in being a police officer and that communicating with all different people in all different areas of society. That was the one of the original reasons I got in,” she says. “I just didn’t want a routine job; I wanted something that I could go home and be proud of and make a difference.”
McDaniel joined the NWPD in 1997 when she was 32, at a time when the average age of recruits was about 25. She was promoted to sergeant in 2008 (the second woman to reach that rank) and became the department’s first female staff sergeant in 2015.
In the past 23 years, she’s risen through the ranks – though that was not her initial goal.
“It was just learning the job, working the road, figuring it all out. I couldn’t have imagined being a leader at that time. It was a lot to learn,” she reflects. “As time goes on, you get more experience; you get more confidence and that sort of thing. You sort of see ‘OK, I can visualize myself doing that.’ But to be honest, I didn’t have a lot of female role models.”
According to statistics provided by the New Westminster Police Department, 42 of the 139 sworn police officers in New Westminster are female. At 30.2%, that compares to the 2018 national average of 22%.
McDaniel is now one of six inspectors in the NWPD, which, at 16.6%, exceeds the 2018 national average of 15%. Five of the department’s 28 NCOs (corporals, sergeants and staff sergeants) are women, which, at 17.8%, is below the 2018 national average of 19%; 36 of the department’s 105 constables are women, which, at 34.2%, tops the national average of 23%.
Eighteenof the 47 police officers hired by the NWPD since 2015 –or 36% – have been female, says police department spokesperson Sgt. Sanjay Kumar.
Hitting the streets
After attending the police academy, McDaniel joined the police department and worked on patrol for two years before moving into the street crime unit and becoming an undercover operator, including some projects with the RCMP and some street-level drug investigations.
“When there used to be a lot of street trade workers on 12th Street, I worked at that trying to attract johns undercover,” she says. “But that was a long time ago; we don’t do any type of work like that anymore.”
In 2002, McDaniel was seconded to the Missing Women Task Force that investigated the cases of women who had gone missing in the Downtown Eastside, which led to Willie Pickton’s conviction on six counts of second-degree murder. During her three-year secondment to the task force, McDaniel says she acquired a lot of skills by working alongside people who had years of expertise in investigating, doing forensic identification and interviewing.
Upon her return to the New Westminster Police Department in 2005, McDaniel returned to the road and worked patrol.
“I became an acting sergeant on the road,” she says, “so that’s where I got my first opportunity of, I guess, leadership in the organization.”
Along the way, McDaniel took on roles including crisis negotiations, media and recruitment, before returing to the road and being promoted as staff sergeant in patrol in 2015. In July 2020, she was awarded the position of inspector.
“Over the course of her 23-year career, Inspector McDaniel has consistently demonstrated the highest levels of leadership, integrity and skill while serving the citizens of New Westminster,” says Chief Const. Dave Jansen. “I am very proud to have her on our senior leadership team, and look forward to the great work she will be doing to make the community safer for all.”
Many of the skills McDaniel has amassed along the way are being put to use in her current role as inspector in charge of prevention services. This division includes: the special investigation unit, which includes domestic violence, sexual assaults and elder abuse investigations; the victim assistance unit; the mental health unit; the training section; community services; and secondments of members working in different integrated units.
Since March, a big part of McDaniel’s job has been dealing with COVID-19 and the police department’s policies, procedures and communication with all staff. She’s also helped update the department’s pandemic plan.
Some of McDaniel’s most recent undertakings have been completing the police department’s responses to the calls for justice recommended by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. She’s also been working on starting an equity and inclusion engagement section, with the goal of having more community engagement and getting input from the community about how the department can better serve them.
The police department is embarking on work with the City of New Westminster and a consultant on the creation of a diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism framework, and McDaniel is one of two NWPD members working on the policing side of the initiative.
“I just really hope there will be a lot more diversity in our leadership and in our department as a whole. That comes with serving the community as well; we want to reflect the community. I know that in recruiting, we are really focusing on that,” she says. “I would just love to see people from all different backgrounds join our department. It would only make us better and stronger in that way.”
Last fall, McDaniel completed a homelessness study for the NWPD, which resulted in the creation of a new position for the community services division – a vulnerable person liaison officer. The two officers in that division work with local organizations that are providing services to vulnerable and at-risk community members.
The New Westminster Police Department’s approach to dealing with vulnerable people has changed a lot since McDaniel’s early days on the job.
“We have a much more compassionate approach to that aspect. We want to be able to serve all members of the community; you know, it’s not just part of the community, but it’s the entire community. In that way, we have to listen to everyone that lives here. That’s the key is trying to hear everyone’s voice, and then acting on those needs,” she says. “It’s changed tremendously as far as how that’s viewed and how we go about our business. It’s a much more compassionate approach.”
A good choice
With retirement beckoning in two or three years, McDaniel looks back on her policing career with a sense of accomplishment.
“It’s been very fulfilling,” she says. “It’s offered me a tremendous amount of variety. I’ve gotten to meet extremely interesting people and I have had experiences that, honestly, I only could have dreamed about with a career. The thing with policing is, it is different every day. There’s a lot of rewarding experiences with that career.”
McDaniel says she’s never felt she was “alone” as a woman in the department, but she is pleased with the growing number of female officers in its ranks – and their opportunities to advance within the organization.
“I feel like all the experiences I have had have kind of got me to this point,” she says.” I feel very lucky, and I feel like it’s a big responsibility too, but I feel very lucky to have had it.”
