OTTAWA – Bob Paulson found himself alone in his living room last Sunday, staring out the window.
He was taking time to reflect and contemplate, something the new RCMP commissioner says he does regularly.
“I think this job needs a lot of careful thought so I’m giving it all I can,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
He has plenty to ponder – including several thorny problems – leading up to his official instalment as top Mountie on Thursday in a colourful change-of-command ceremony.
There’s the recent baggage: the Maher Arar overseas torture affair, criticism for excessive stun gun use, the death of four Mounties at Mayerthorpe, Alta., and a brewing harassment scandal.
Then there’s the future: Rebuilding officer morale. Restoring trust with Canadians. And modernizing the force’s management structures.
Paulson, 52, says he agreed to lead the storied police force because he had been around headquarters long enough to see the things that needed doing.
“I think I had to step up and offer my views on how they ought to get done,” he said during a car ride to the force’s new headquarters, just south of Ottawa.
“The RCMP is very important to Canadians. It’s important to me personally.”
He sandwiched the interview between meetings with the public safety minister and the national security adviser, a prelude to two days of sessions with senior RCMP executive members from across the country.
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He assumes the daunting post as the Conservative government moves a raft of anti-crime legislation through Parliament, including a bill to end the registration of long guns.
Paulson won’t offer his views on the government’s legislative agenda. The RCMP’s job is to enforce the law, not make it, he said.
To that end, the man who describes himself as a “simple country cop” espouses a kind of back-to-basics approach to law enforcement -concentrating on arrests, convictions and pursuit of serious criminals.
“I’d like to see that take hold more broadly in the force.”
His other immediate priorities are restoring a strong sense of leadership and accountability, including a zero-tolerance policy on what he calls “dark-hearted behaviour” such as harassment.
He recalls a conversation while sailing from Hawaii with his brother, then a navy ship captain. His brother said that if the ship ran aground in the night, he would be fired, not the helmsman.
“That’s what I want to bring to how we practise leadership in the organization,” Paulson said.
“I feel the excitement and the pride of being promoted to commissioner. But I also feel the enormity of the responsibility, to the point where I can’t breathe sometimes. I want everybody to feel that.”
Paulson got his start in the military, first as a young army cadet. He served in the Armed Forces for seven years, flying single engine jets.
But he had also applied to the RCMP. “It was always something that interested me, so I came back to it when I had the opportunity.”
Beginning in 1986, Paulson served for 19 years throughout British Columbia, working on unsolved murders, aboriginal and community policing, and organized crime probes.
“When I joined this force it fit like a glove. And I’ve been in love with it ever since.
“I like to consider myself a good investigator. I loved that. Because it was tangible, it was clear. And you could interact with people and get evidence.”
He came to Ottawa headquarters in 2005, climbing the executive ladder through a series of posts, most recently deputy commissioner for federal policing.
Paulson has three children – the youngest is still in high school, the oldest articles as a budding lawyer.
A longtime runner, he unwinds by jogging, often with his partner Erin. “That’s about the only thing that takes away the stress.”
But Paulson also likes to read. His current pick? A novel by detective writer George Pelecanos. “I’m irrevocably hooked on police stories.”
And then there’s thinking – not just about the future, he says, but the past.
“Because I think we lose sight of that sometimes. When you go through a busy day and you make all sorts of decisions and you impact peoples’ lives, you don’t often think about what that was.”
He wants to assure Canadians that he’s conscious of the power the national police force wields.
“The path to trust and public confidence in police is squarely on that little line. How we do what we do is vitally important. And so I just want people to know that I get that.”
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said Paulson spent nine years in B.C.
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