Waterloo regional police host annual open house at Cambridge headquarters

Community members were given the opportunity to celebrate Police Week on Saturday at the Headquarters Open House hosted by the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS).

The annual event was held at WRPS’ headquarters at 200 Maple Grove Road in Cambridge.

Information booths were set up for attendees to explore. There was also face painting, food trucks, and a bouncy castle among other family-friendly activities.

“We’re hosting our 50th anniversary celebration this year. It’s a chance for us to reflect on our history but also to re-engage for the community,” said Police Chief Mark Crowell with WRPS. “We’ve had tremendous community support for many years so it’s a chance to give back and engage and to really welcome people into our doors and to show them what we do.”

Demonstrations were also carried out by various police units within WRPS.

“We have a number of things for people to engage with us,” said Crowell. “Demonstrations of our emergency response team, our canine team, we have the Safety Village up and running, and we have a lot of our vehicles out so it’s an interactive opportunity for people to see our equipment.”

Donations of non-perishable food items were accepted for the Food Bank of Waterloo Region.

Another open house will be held on June 3 at WRPS’ North Division headquarters at 45 Columbia Street East in Waterloo.

“Our motto is ‘people helping people’, so we really want to show our humanity. We want to show our compassion, our commitment to the community. Whenever we have a chance to engage, to provide some education and chance to really show the work that we do and the broad range of services that we provide, we’ll always take that chance,” said Crowell.