New Yukon RCMP commanding officer cites need for police to 'modernize'

Yukon RCMP Chief Supt. Lindsay Ellis says the pace of change in society is fast — and so the needs of police are changing just as rapidly.

Ellis was recently named the new commanding officer of Yukon RCMP, replacing the former chief superintendent, Scott Sheppard, who retired last year. 

Ellis has served as an officer in the Yukon for 12 years. In 2022, she was named superintendent as the criminal operations officer of the RCMP's M Division.

Ellis spoke to the CBC's Tori Fitzpatrick about her new appointment, and what her priorities are in her new role.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You've already done a lot of work with the RCMP, but now as commanding officer, what do you hope to accomplish?

I think just what I hope to accomplish is continuing the strong progressive leadership that Chief Superintendent Scott Sheppard has forged here for the last eight years. I also hope to accomplish that we remain and continue to be a flexible and adaptive and community-centred policing service for all Yukoners and visitors alike. I want to accomplish the increase of public safety, and increase the sense and perception of community safety. 

What are some of the pressing issues that the RCMP will be addressing and that you will be taking on as a leader?

The challenges that I think we have are just the pace of how society is changing and how the needs are changing for police.

That's not so much of a challenge as it is an opportunity for us to modernize. But I think some of the challenges that are at the forefront of my mind [are] public safety and community needs and making sure that we're responsive and that we're listening and that we're adapting where we need to.

The second area of challenge is going to be, I think a lot of workplaces are experiencing a changing workforce, different needs of employees and also costs. You know, economics is certainly a driver in policing right now and in many different sectors. But I think that those are not so much challenges as they are, you know, opportunities — like I said, for me and my team and all of the folks at the Yukon RCMP to really strive to look at what we're doing, look at how we can maybe adapt and truly meet the needs not only for Yukoners, but also for the organization as a whole. 

You mentioned modernizing. What does that look like for the Yukon RCMP?

The changes that have occurred even in the last three years here, when I look at them, [include] implementing an alternative service delivery model for crisis response with our Car 867 police-nurse pairing that was the first North of 60 and that's unheard of.

One of the other key areas of modernization has been around critical incident response capabilities and even just leveraging the technology that's available now to great impact for policing.

A great example of that is our body-worn camera program that went live here at Whitehorse detachment about two months ago. That is a key piece of digital technology that's already improved our accountability mechanisms not only within but also with the public. It's improving our outcomes and capturing some evidence that we might not have captured in another format. It might have only been an observation of a police officer, and now it's a recording. And we've seen some great gains in that. 

How do you intend to create trust and and foster better relationships with Yukon First Nations with your new role?

I look at where we've come from even since "Sharing Common Ground" — that was the review of the Yukon police service in 2010. The foundation of those pieces were absolutely ahead of their time for policing across the country with First Nations communities. And when I look at where we're at and how we've adopted and gone beyond, I think that it'll only continue.