Two Calgarians recognized for lifetime achievements

Two women that have dedicated their careers to helping Calgarians and improving policing in our city were recognized by our Commission with lifetime achievement awards this November.

The awards were launched this year as a way to formally recognize those who have dedicated years of their life to strengthening both policing, and the way the police and the community work together in Calgary.

“Selecting this year’s recipients was not easy,” said Commission Chair Shawn Cornett. “There are so many whose contributions over their career are worthy of recognition. However, the two people we are recognizing are very deserving of these awards and have made significant contributions to better policing, not only in our community, but in our province and beyond.”

“On behalf our entire Commission, congratulations to you both.”

The awards were presented at the annual Calgary Police Service Chief’s Awards Gala on November 24, 2023.

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The Lifetime Achievement in Community Policing Award is presented by our Commission to one community member that has made a sustained and exceptional contribution to the ideals of community policing in Calgary. The recipient must have worked with the Calgary Police Service or other law enforcement as a volunteer or in a professional capacity for at least 10 years and have exceptionally contributed to lasting positive change in policing through research, innovation, community building, partnership, mentorship, training and/or leadership.

Maggie MacKillop is the 2023 recipient of this award.

Ms. MacKillop moved to Calgary 23 years ago to join a pilot project that brought social supports, judges, crown prosecutors, defence counsellors, and law enforcement together into a specialized court to better support families experiencing domestic violence. The pilot project Ms. MacKillop joined later became the non-profit agency, HomeFront. Over time, the relationships that she built with law enforcement and justice officials led to HomeFront getting unprecedented access to court information and the ability to now provide support to families in crisis as an integrated part of courtrooms. In 2004, her work was again integral in expanding HomeFront’s role as the organization partnered with the Calgary Police Service to form the Domestic Conflict Response Team. This team paired HomeFront caseworkers with police officers to intervene with families identified by the police as being at risk for their conflicts escalating to domestic violence.

In 2014, Ms. MacKillop became HomeFront’s Executive Director where she has worked tirelessly to not only improve the supports offered by the organization, but also to secure the funding to resource them. She has worked collaboratively with other agencies across Calgary as a member of the Calgary Domestic Violence Collective, Connect Family and Sexual Abuse Network Operations Committee, and Safer Calgary Committee. Under her leadership, HomeFront has helped cut domestic violence re-offence rates in half and their court supports have helped more than double victim engagement in the justice process. Almost 90 per cent of the families helped by the Domestic Conflict Response Team she led have seen reduced or no further domestic conflict. The success of this team is so undeniable that in 2019, Ms. MacKillop worked with the Calgary Police Service to reimagine the program and incorporate case workers from six other agencies to both provide more specialized supports and make the program more sustainable.

In addition to transforming how families experiencing domestic conflict and violence are supported after a police interaction, Ms. MacKillop has used her relationships and expertise to improve Indigenous people’s experience in the justice system. She was instrumental in helping launch Calgary’s Indigenous Court, which brings together culturally-appropriate wrap-around supports to address non-violent crimes committed by Indigenous offenders. She is also active with the Safety of Indigenous Women in an Urban Setting Collective.

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The Lifetime of Distinguished Service Award is presented by our Commission to one current or recent employee of the Calgary Police Service who, over at least a 20-year career, has excelled in their roles and exceptionally contributed to lasting positive change in policing through research, innovation, community building, mentorship, training and/or leadership.

Detective Christina Witt is the 2023 recipient of this award.

Detective Witt has been a police officer for 24 years and showed exceptional skill from the beginning, having been selected by her instructors during recruit training for the Bill Shelever Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement. During her time in policing, she has served as an investigator in the Drug Unit, Child Abuse Unit, Professional Standards Section, Major Crimes Section, and as a member of the Calgary Police Service Threat Assessment Committee. She has been primary investigator, file manager, affiant, and support in over 200 suspicious death investigations. Over her career, she has demonstrated skill in interviewing witnesses, victims and suspects, as well as in operational planning, search and seizure, and training other officers in investigative techniques.

In addition to being an outstanding investigator, Detective Witt has shown a commitment to bettering her profession. She has presented homicide investigation case studies in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, the United States and Australia, to share lessons learned and support the development of best practices for investigators internationally. She has also contributed to knowledge sharing and advancing policing as a member of the Homicide Research Working Group, the National Homicide Investigators Association, the Coalition for Canadian Police Reform, and a research group assessing the feasibility of a Professional College of Policing in British Columbia.

Detective Witt also has made exceptional contributions to innovation and training the next generation of law enforcement professionals through her academic career. She holds a PhD from Charles Sturt University, where she focused her studies on death investigation methods. Since 2010, she has served as a sessional instructor in the Mount Royal University criminal justice program in addition to her duties at the Calgary Police Service. She is an accomplished academic writer and has published over 10 research papers aimed at improving homicide and child abuse investigations by bridging academic research with the knowledge of practitioners.

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More information about the awards and nomination process can be found on our Commission Awards webpage.