Const. Joshua Clark is the newest and youngest member of the Quesnel RCMP.
The 21-year-old, who studied Criminal and Social Justice at Okanagan College and previously worked at a recreation centre in Kelowna, has been a member of the Quesnel RCMP since August of last year and says the opportunity is one for which he is very grateful.
“I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of policing; I’ve loved it ever since I was a kid, and to be honest, I am here way earlier than I thought I was going to be,” said Clark. “I applied under the impression that I was going to get deferred for about six or seven years just because of my age, but here we are, and I couldn’t be happier.”
Clark says that positive interactions with police in his early life and a strong desire to be a positive force in his community are what led him to pursuing a career with the RCMP.
“Police are always involved in their community, and I imagine that everyone interacts with the police at some point in their life,” said Clark. “I’ve had the opportunity to see the positive impacts they have on people’s lives, when things have happened with my family, or with my friends. I’ve always been heavily involved in my community, so I think my best role models and my inspiration for getting into policing were my school liaison officers in middle school and high school.”
Clarke says that while moving to a smaller town has at some times been difficult, he has fallen in love with Quesnel as he has learned more about the community and the people who live in it, and the community has in turn embraced him.
“Coming from cities to smaller towns has definitely presented challenges, but it’s been exciting, and I’ve been enjoying learning so many different things about the community, and living in a place with a small town vibe has been fantastic,” says Clark. “Having an opportunity to see a more family-oriented community has been great. Back home, things were always so fast-paced, and people were always running from spot to spot; they never really had a chance to sit down, hang out and truly get to know each other. I’ve already got to know my neighbours, which is something that was so rare back home.”
When Clark is not hard at work with the RCMP, he likes to create social media content, something he has enjoyed doing from a young age, around his other passions, which include mentoring, promoting a positive and healthy lifestyle and magic, a hobby he has been practising for almost seven years.
“I still love creating YouTube videos, which are completely unrelated to policing — YouTube channels, Instagram pages, the typical stuff that 21-year-olds tend to be into, but I’ve also been a magician for about six or seven years, and that is something I love to practise in my free time,” said Clark.
Clark says that although he has only been working and living in Quesnel for a short period of time, he is overwhelmed with the positivity the community has shown him, and he is proud of the work he is doing and the connections he has made and hopes to continue to make in the future.
“I have had the opportunity to meet people very quickly here, being a small town, and I’ve had the opportunity to interact with them in a work capacity as well as a member of the community itself, so it’s been great to see and feel the positive change and build an even deeper connection to the community,” he said.
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