Carolyn Csanyi joined ISN as a senior investigator in the Fall of 2021 after over 3 decades of service with the police. It’s hard to believe looking back how it all started.
Originally hailing from Halifax, Carolyn had already completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at St. Francis Xavier University when a friend phoned her. The Toronto Police Service was recruiting in Halifax, and Carolyn went with her friend to learn more.
That decision soon saw her joining the service in Toronto, where she spent the first 8 years of her career, serving as a constable with various branches. “Joining the police service was the best decision I ever made,” she recalls fondly.
As her family grew, they sought out a smaller community and made the move to Kingston, where Carolyn served her community for 25 years. “You start back at square one when you move services,” she explained, but her career took off in a great direction.
Carolyn spent over 15 years of her time with the service as an investigator at various levels, handling challenging criminal investigations including cases of sexual assault, child abuse, and domestic violence.
“It’s highly impactful work,” she notes. “Individuals who have experienced traumatic events are trusting in you when they come forward to conduct a professional investigation, and are hoping for a good outcome, but also need your emotional support.” Carolyn notes that even when an outcome was not positive, families were always appreciative of her compassion, professionalism and high standards.
Carolyn jokes that she did not take to retirement well! After leaving Kingston Police in July, 2021, she had joined ISN as a senior investigator by the Fall. “Coming to ISN has allowed me to come back to my roots and be a hands-on investigator, which I really like,” she says proudly.
Carolyn is focused on putting her extensive training in interviewing and investigations to great use once again. She’s taking on serious investigations in sexual harassment, sexual assault, workplace harassment, etc. and using her trauma-informed skills from her time in law enforcement to enhance her work.
During her time at ISN Carolyn’s work has been focused on conducting complex internal investigations for corporations involving workplace harassment, discrimination and sexual violence issues. She has also assisted post secondary institutions with complex sexual violence student conduct matters. Her knowledge and skills have also been applied to reviewing police investigations for civil litigation matters.
Yet she’s also enjoying the more relaxed schedule of having some downtime as well. It gives her time to travel, spend time on her garden, and focus on her newest priority - her two young grandsons.