Connecting with the community, strengthening police relationships with Indigenous people and having a local impact are among the priorities for Brandon’s new police chief.
Tyler Bates, who starts in the new role on Oct. 15, spoke to the Sun in a phone interview from Regina, where he served as the RCMP’s chief superintendent of the Saskatchewan’s south district.
He described his next chapter as the top cop in the Wheat City as a “homecoming.”
“Over the course of my service, I’ve certainly appreciated working with people in three different provinces and seeing the country, if you will, in the course of my 31 years plus of service,” he said. “But there’s certainly a longing for roots and a longing for home.”
Bates grew up in the north end of Winnipeg. He earned his bachelor of arts degree at the University of Winnipeg in justice and law enforcement, then completed a two-year leadership program at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto.
He told the Sun that his family and his wife’s family still live in Manitoba, and the former Mountie spent 19 years of his policing career in the province.
But taking the helm of the Brandon Police Service is not just an opportunity for the 53-year-old to return home, he said — it’s an opportunity that he has been waiting for in his career to take on a new challenge and have a bigger impact.
“In the RCMP you have federal mandates and federal expectations, so just to have the opportunity to work with the local policing board, to work with the community and to dedicate 100 per cent of my efforts towards impacting those community priorities — that is certainly something that I’ve always been attracted to,” Bates said.
While the new police chief said it was too early to give specifics on his vision for improving the Brandon Police Service, he said the relationship between him and the city’s Indigenous community and its racialized residents is a priority, as well as providing a respectful and empathetic police service.
“I certainly want to foster an environment that is respectful, that is empathetic and that works collaboratively with the community, to make sure that the service that is provided is impartial and mindful of the biases that people have in exercising their responsibilities,” he said. “So, I certainly want to minimize that and make sure that the service provided is one that is impartial and equitable.”
During his time in the RCMP, he served as the director of national Indigenous policing in Ottawa and raised concern with the lack of reliable, accurate data pertaining to the number of Indigenous women that were missing and murdered.
“It concerned me that as the national police force in Canada … we were not able to shed some light on the particular scope of that particular issue,” he said. He proposed to the commissioner at the time that research to quantify the magnitude of missing and murdered Indigenous women be undertaken.
As a result, the 2014 RCMP report titled “Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operational Overview” found that more than 1,000 Indigenous women were murdered over a period of 30 years.
Bates said the study highlighted more than just the hard numbers — it illuminated other socioeconomic issues that play a role in the victimization of Indigenous women.
The issue is also close to Bates’ heart, as he is Métis and said his father had a lot of negative experiences with police.
“There is a history between the police and Indigenous people where there has been problems from a relationship perspective, and there have been instances where there has been a lack of equity and instances of mistreatment,” he said. “So, I certainly am very motivated to make sure that is not the case as it relates to the Brandon Police Service.”
Bates said he first thought of a career in law enforcement when he was home alone as a teenager and his family’s home was broken into. He said the police who showed up at his door, treating him with concern and compassion, attracted him to the role. His father also spoke about positive experiences with RCMP, leading Bates to initially pursue a career with the federal force.
“It wasn’t lost on me when I joined the RCMP — the history that the RCMP had with Indigenous people in terms of residential schools and being the arm of government, in sustaining that type of abusive patriarchal system,” he said. “So as much as any police officer can’t change the past, there’s certainly much that we can do in terms of empathy and in terms of relationship building to make sure that the future looks a whole lot different than the past of our country.”
The new chief also said he wants to have a good rapport with the media and have open conversations.
“It’s important that regular communication takes place so that the citizenry is not only informed but has a level of confidence and trust in the police service that is being provided,” he said.
Bates said while his career in the RCMP has been positive, he sees turning in his federal badge and uniform as the start of an exciting new opportunity.
“The challenge and the opportunity — and the homecoming and Brandon — is something that I’m really excited about, and that my family is excited about.”
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