Ernie Louttit completed his third memoir in a place called “Buzzy’s Bug Hut.” This “ideal location” was a screened enclosure at a cabin in the woods of northern Ontario.
- The Unexpected Cop
- Ernie Louttit
- University of Regina Press
- $21.95 Paperback, 192 pages
- ISBN: 978-08-89775-99-2
As with his first two manuscripts, The Unexpected Cop: Indian Ernie on a Life of Leadership came to life using the “two-finger” typing method as he transcribed pages of handwritten thoughts.
“You tell people you are considering writing some more and they encourage you because they believe there are still many stories to share,” the retired Canadian soldier and police officer chuckles.
One of the first Indigenous police officers hired by the Saskatoon Police Service, the best-selling author and public speaker chose leadership as the main focus of his latest book.
“People are very passionate about policing and leadership,” Louttit writes in the preface. “Not a day has gone by since I left where policing and leadership are not featured in a news headline. Policing and justice are emotional topics for a lot of people. Issues where policing and race intersect always start the water boiling.”
“I would make it clear I was on duty and had a job to do, but that I cared about the area and wanted to use my job to make positive change.” -Ernie Louttit
The moniker “Indian Ernie” is something Louttit talks about with a sense of pride as it was given to him by those he encountered in an inner-city community he wanted to improve. “I would go into areas of Saskatoon where young people, predominantly Aboriginal youth, would take a good look at me, see my face and wonder what I was doing in a uniform,” he says.
“I would make it clear I was on duty and had a job to do, but that I cared about the area and wanted to use my job to make positive change.”
Sometimes, resentment set in while he was on the job. “I’d be called an apple (red on the outside/white in the middle) or just someone working for the man. It bugged me a bit, but then there were the moments when I knew my presence meant something and that I actually was making a difference.”
In The Unexpected Cop, the husband and father reflects on his journey from growing up in northern Ontario to being a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, to serving as a police officer in Saskatoon, and finally to his life as a writer and public speaker there.
Clarifying the role a true leader needs to take on to make change happen, Louttit examines such topics as racism, sexism, the media, the use of force, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the writer’s life through his experiences as a military and police officer and as a leader and speaker.
The message that comes through loud and clear in all of this reflection and advice is that in order to deal with and learn from trauma, racism, sexism, and other conflicts, we need to talk openly about them.
Louttit is already thinking about his next book, and he’s ready for readers’ responses. “I don’t expect everyone who reads about my journey to agree with my take on the controversial issues, but I would hope they are able to at least reflect on what I’ve had to say.”
