“From Tragedy to Triumph: The Story of Manuela Carmona Moreno, the First Latina Police Officer in Chatham-Kent”

From what began as a family tragedy that forced her to leave the country with her family from Medellín to Canada, the opportunity arose to be the first latino police who is part of the police force of a county of 150,000 people in the country of the maple leaf.

That’s the story of Manuela Carmona Moreno, a 23-year-old paisawho since February of last year has been part of the Chatham-Kent Police force, a county in the province of Ontario that is three hours from Toronto.

This young patrolwoman came from the San Lucas neighborhood, in El Poblado, when she was nine years old, due to circumstances that in his childhood he could not understand, but over the years he understood. And it was because of a business with a car that his father, Juan Esteban Carmona, did.

“My dad sold a car that belonged to him to a man, agreeing that he would give him a part and then pay him in monthly installments. In the end, this person did not pay him and began to threaten him, even telling him my mother’s name and mine. Because of this, my dad decided to leave the country.Manuela recounted.

On September 8, 2008, the journey of the Carmona Moreno family began, which began in the state of Connecticut, United States, and then passed through the cities of Vermont and Montreal, in Canada, where they passed illegally. After asking for refuge, they did the process and settled from Chatham-Kent to start a new life that, over the years, led her to dress up as a police officer.

“I never had in my plans to be a policeman because considered it too risky, according to what I saw in Colombia. But I really liked helping the community and after finishing school I started studying to be an immigration officer. There I met several police officers who told me that if I was not interested in applying, I started the process from there,” said this paisa.

In a process that took a year and a half, Manuela submitted all the documentation and while waiting for a response, He dedicated himself to other tasks focused on helping the communityas in a foundation that worked with minors with a childhood with family complexities.

Her Spanish speaking skills and willingness to work with people got her through this long process and being appointed as a police officer, not knowing at first that She was the first woman from Latin America to be part of this police force.

“It was after I found out that I was the first Latina in this police station, which for me it is a great pride”, assured this young woman.

The challenges

Although his work is more focused on the social, the public order situation in this county, with an agrarian vocation for the most part, It has been getting worse in the last two years.mainly because of the micro-trafficking that has come from Toronto.

“We have a lot of people connecting with the drug world, which is very big in Toronto, and those people are coming here. All of this is affecting the community and even more so the population that lives on the street. And that ends up in more crime, because they are people who have no money, ”he said.

Even the homicide figures have been increasing due to this phenomenon, since in all of 2022 there were nine cases, a very high number for a population small and that it was always so peaceful that in almost every year it had very similar numbers. If we compare, it would be like talking about the town of San Sebastián de Palmitas, in Medellín, where years can go by without a murder.

Now, with her dark uniform, Manuela dreams of strengthening social work with all migrant communities from Asia and Latin Americawithout neglecting his police work.

And as for Medellín, for her it is that corner of happiness that she visits from time to time to greet her relatives, although among her plans he’s not coming back anytime soonbecause her idea is to consolidate herself in the institution and fulfill her work of being the first Latina woman in the Chatham-Kent Police County with honor.