Monica Chertok is a 25-year veteran of the Winnipeg Manitoba Police Service (WMPS). In 1988 she joined the Service at a time when females and visible minorities were small in number and became the first black female officer for the City of Winnipeg.
She served in various positions, which gave her broad in-depth knowledge of the inner workings of a major police department. Monica was promoted to the rank of patrol sergeant where she held a variety of management positions, including Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Audit, Accreditation, Public Information (PI), and Customer Service Reporting Units. As the Public Information Officer (PIO) she represented the Service through the major media outlets, including the Winnipeg Free Press and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC). As OIC of the Customer Service Reporting Unit, she had 24-hour responsibility for more than 26 subordinate police constables and civilian support personnel for multiple geographic patrol areas in Winnipeg. The WMPS executive staff, impressed with her organizational skills, transferred her to the Planning and Policy Office and there charged her with completing the WMPS’ effort to become internationally re-accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA). She was responsible to ensure that the agency complied with more than 464 CALEA standards and, for this, oversaw the creation of more than 200 directives, which were published in the WMPS Policy and Procedures Manual. Following re-accreditation Monica took the position as OIC of the PI unit, where she remained until her retirement May 2013.
Chertok holds an associates’ degree in Public Relations from the University of Winnipeg. She resides in Satellite Beach Florida.