After serving almost six years, Saskatoon Police Service Chief Troy Cooper announced his retirement from the force in October.
Cooper’s last day with the force will be Jan. 16, 2024.
Global morning anchor Chris Carr sat down with him to talk about his career and how policing has changed over the years.
Carr: Take us back. Where did it all start for you? What made you want to get into policing?
Cooper: Well, I think when I was a kid. I saw the RCMP officers in the community that I was in as community leaders. They were people that were really involved in what I thought was important work. I tell a story where I saw a marine, a commercial for the marines, when I was a kid and watching them stand with their white gloves and, you know, look noble and representative of something bigger than themselves. It was always attractive to me. So, when I was 21, I joined the Prince Albert Police Service.
Carr: What was that like? Getting into the service? Was it all you thought it would be?
Cooper: To begin with, it was nothing I thought it would be like. I assumed, like a lot of people, that police officers go and write traffic tickets and that made up the bulk of their day. It’s a very small part of what they do. I started out doing prisoner transports to court and then I was serving documents as a special constable before I was given the ability to go on patrol and then eventually the police college. So, I started out learning everything. I didn’t know what all of this stuff meant on people’s uniforms. I thought I called everybody sir. I had no idea what rank structure looked like. I struggled for sure a bit, but it was an incredible experience right from the first day on. I’m very happy I chose that career.
Carr: Thirty-one years in Prince Albert. You’ve been in Saskatoon since 2018. Your career has also included time serving as an undercover officer. What was that like?
Cooper: Well, I say it’s a bit of a wasted youth because a lot of the drugs we were investigating — I was in a drug unit — it was a lot of cannabis trafficking at the time. Now that it’s legalized, I wonder about the value of that time spent. But working undercover was interesting. I worked on drug trafficking cases, of course, but also on homicides and other serious offences. So, it’s more structured than you see on TV. There’s a lot more rules about it than you might think. But it was it was another really interesting part of a career, for sure.
Carr: How has police changed over the span of your career? You’ve seen a lot of changes, as we hear them now. A lot of the calls that police attend to have more to do with addictions and the social issues related to homelessness. Recent reports from the board of police commissioners showing that many of the calls police deal with have nothing to do with criminal offences.
Cooper: I think the policing has changed in a number of ways. One is that we’re more professional than we once were. We professionalized over the last 30 years. When I first started, I purchased a baton. I didn’t have a firearm and I was out on patrol without training and police college. That would never happen. Today, of course, we’re extremely well trained and educated, but the community response as well as change, you talk about some of the social issues we deal with. We’re more preventative, we work more with our partners and, of course, we’re victim-focused now as well. So, at one point we saw our role as crime-solving, responding, and now we see ourselves as including the victim in the whole justice experience and being preventative whenever possible.
Carr: What comes next for Chief Troy Cooper?
Cooper: Well, I think just going to take a little bit of a breather, you know, some time to myself and then regroup and see what I’m passionate about here. So, I don’t have any big plans right now, just sort of some time off over Christmas and to rest. I’ll see where I go from there.
Carr: Well, congratulations on an incredible career and thank you for all your service. Really appreciate your making time for us.
Cooper: It’s been my pleasure. Thank you.
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