Indian Ernie ― Perspectives on Policing and Leadership

When he began his career with the Saskatoon Police in 1987, Ernie Louttit was only the city?s third native police officer. Indian Ernie, as he came to be known on the streets, here details an era of challenge, prejudice, and also tremendous change in urban policing. Drawing from his childhood, army career, and service as a veteran patrol officer, Louttit shares stories of criminals and victims, the night shift, avoiding politics, but most of all, the realities of the marginalized and disenfranchised. Louttit spent his entire career (including as a Sergeant) patrolling the streets of Saskatoon?s west side, an area until recently beset by poverty, and terrible social conditions. Here, he struggled to bring justice to communities where the lines between criminal and victim often blurred. Though Louttit?s story is characterized by conflict, danger, and violence, he argues that love and empathy for the community you serve are the greatest tools in any officer?s hands, especially when policing society?s less fortunate.While his story is based on his experiences in Saskatoon, it is equally applicable to the challenges faced in any community where marginalized people live. It is an exciting, passionate, easy to read, and highly accessible story aimed at a broad audience.

Born in 1961 in a remote northern Ontario community and a member of the Missanabie Cree Band raised off reserve, Ernie Louttit attended a one-room school until grade 8. He was boarded out in another town for high school, which he hated, and led to him quitting in grade 11 to work for the Canadian National Railway. At 17, he joined the Canadian Forces, serving with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and military police. In 1987, he was hired by the Saskatoon Police as only the third native officer in the force's history. He has spent his entire 26 year career on the streets of Saskatoon’s west side. Louttit served during the most tumultuous years of the Saskatoon Police Service, always in the front lines as he learned to navigate the difficult issues of crime, race, and community expectations – both white and native. He officially retired as a Sergeant as of October 29, 2013.