Sgt. Randy Dixon is new Pincher Creek RCMP Detachment Commander

Sgt. Dixon presents wreath on behalf of the Government of Canada
at local Remembrance Day Ceremony
T. Lucas photo

Toni Lucas, Pincher Creek Voice

Sergeant Randy Dixon was recently appointed the position of Detachment Commander of the Pincher Creek RCMP and assumed the role last week.

Sgt. Dixon has been with the RCMP for 23 years. 20 years of his RCMP service was in British Columbia, and his most recent posting was at Moose Lake, Manitoba.  He was assigned as the Detachment Commander there for 2 years on a limited duration posting.  "This is much larger.  The last one, there were only five members.  I was that fifth member."

It has been close to three years since Pincher Creek Detachment has had a permanent Detachment Commander. "They have been bringing people in to look after it, and we've had good guys here, guys that are really good, from around here," said Dixon.  He said that a few of the officers that have held the position include Sgt Brown, Cpl. Feist, Cpl. McKenna, and Cpl. Gopp.


"I have so many people who already know what they are doing here.  I am impressed by how they do things."

The Pincher Creek Detachment has 10 officers including Dixon, one auxiliary officer, plus support staff and victim services personnel.  Waterton works in conjunction with Pincher Creek as well.  "From here we work very closely with the members from Piikani, and Crowsnest," Dixon explained.  "Long before I came there were stats." Dixon has been reading those statistics to see what is going on in the area he just took charge of.  He expressed a high respect for the support and administrative staff.

"I have a whole bunch of plans, and I'm really excited.  What I'll do is conduct interviews with everybody," he said talking about his staff.  This will help Dixon identify workloads, work atmosphere, what programs to implement, and long and short term goals.

"I will probably send something out to the community to see what their needs are in policing and what their ideas are.  I have to see what is covered, and what the community needs.  I want their input, their honest input.  That's what I look for."

Dixon would like to carry on with public education and outreach programs like Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), and Citizens on Patrol (COP), while balancing the workload of the individuals on his team.

Dixon joined the RCMP force in 1990.  "In 1991 I got posted in Nanaimo, BC.  I received a commendation write up.  It's an award for bravery excellence in service on duty."  As a young officer he was running errands for the detachment, when he was alerted by a concerned citizen that something unusual was happening in a jewelry store. The woman told him, "I think I saw some guys with masks go in there".  He called for backup as the thieves came out of the store.

"I took foot chase.  There were two of them running, and a car.  I gave the partial plate number of the Mustang, They took the car down a few blocks away.  I chased the guy with the gun.  I took him down at gun point.  We recovered $248,000.00 in jewelry.  That was my first most serious gun complaint incident, myself, on my own."

Six months to a year later, while doing undercover work in Nanaimo, he ended up doing surveillance on a person that was later linked to the armed robbery.  "One of the guys was a drug kingpin, and he had gotten some drug user people to go and do the robbery for him."

Dixon was investigating fires for three years in Oliver in  Osoyoos, BC. "Everyone thought I was a kind of crazy to keep investigating and keep the files open.  They were grass fires, without a lot of evidence." Dixon took an interest in the cases and asked other members in the area to send him copies of any files on grass fires they were investigating.  "I found a really keen interest in it."  His keen interest helped him to trace a number of these fires down to a single arsonist, leading to an arrest.

"Now I'm on a different level.  I have done all that and now it's a matter of taking who I work with and seeing if I can develop them.  Find out their strong points and their weak points.  No-one is going to perform the same way, everybody has different skills.  You have to take their skills and make them better.  You take the weaker skills, and see if you can bring them up."

"The police, it's the best job, in my opinion, to join." Dixon talked about the intensive screening that happens before training to select personality types that will be suited best to the work.  "You don't have to be the cop on the beat, or the one driving the car.  You can be in the musical ride, you can be the one behind the scene, doing forensic ident, you can be the one sitting in an embassy in Europe.  Police work is so interesting.".

"My wife and I, we love it here," Dixon said, speaking of his wife Denise, " She puts up with a lot.  It's not a job, being a policeman is a lifestyle."  Dixon grew up in Manitoba and met his wife in British Columbia.  The two enjoy travel and are looking forward to enjoying some of the outdoor activities in the area.  "Life's too short, you've got to be happy."