Prince George RCMP's newest superintendent gets as much a thrill from achieving the behind-the-scene victories as making the big arrest.
"I like working with stakeholders and partnerships and collaboration," Insp. Warren Brown said in an interview Friday. "As corny as it may sound, that is the key to success in policing."
By way of example, Brown recalled an instance when he was with the Delta Police Department and was dealing with a spate of arsons, break-ins and mischief to homes near a park in the Lower Mainland municipality.
"I remember getting the neighbourhood together and we took a problem-oriented policing approach and we resolved the issues in a number of months," Brown said.
Similarly, when he was posted in the Hazeltons a few years back, a serious youth suicide crisis erupted. In response, he and other stakeholders, particularly the area's seven First Nations bands, came together and successfully found ways to stop the trend.
"That's been as [rewarding] to me as the best murder case or bank robbery I've ever worked on," Brown said.
Brown is a third generation Mountie whose career in policing has spanned 27 years, beginning with the Winnipeg Police Service in 1987, followed by the Delta Police Department until he joined the RCMP in 2002.
His first RCMP posting was to Merritt, followed by detachment commander roles in New Hazelton and then Williams Lake, where he has been for five years.
His decision to join the RCMP was a "180 degree turn" from why he first chose not to become a member.
"I joined the municipal police because I wanted to work in the big city, I wanted to be involved in that type of crime," Brown said.
"In the RCMP there's always the opportunity that rather than being sent to Surrey or Prince George, you could go to a very small remote location and at a very young age that just wasn't who I was.
"And after about 15 years of policing, I wanted to work in small-town B.C. so I guess it was just my maturing as a police officer, as a person, and priorities in my life."
In Williams Lake, Brown is moving from one of the busier RCMP detachments in B.C.
"We've never not been number one for case burden per member and we've always been in the top three for most other criminal stats, so it's been a very challenging environment," Brown said.
He said Prince George has its own set of challenges as a feeder community for B.C.'s northern region but is also very engaged and noted the work of Mayor Shari Green and her mayor's task force on crime.
"She has really developed a robust strategy and a roadmap or blueprint for how go about it," Brown said. "And certainly the RCMP were involved in that and assisted but it was the mayor who really circled the wagons and got that going."
And he said Prince George's reputation as a crime-ridden community is unfair.
"I think Prince George is an excellent place to live and I'm elated to have an opportunity to come live there," he said.
Brown is replacing Eric Stubbs, who left in June for Ottawa where he is the RCMP's director general of national criminal operations. Stubbs "did an excellent job in my opinion," Brown said and added he plans to continue the positive momentum seen under his leadership.
Insp. Brad Anderson, Prince George RCMP's operations officer, is leading the detachment until Brown arrives.
