RCMP superintendent’s storied career began with a class at a Chilliwack high school

The experience, according to a profile from the BC RCMP, instilled a profound impact on the teenager. Carr decided that same night that he wanted to be an RCMP officer. He applied, wrote and passed the entrance exam.

But he wouldn’t don the red serge right away. While waiting to hear back from the RCMP, he and his wife moved to Powell River where he managed a jewelry store. The couple decided to start a family and would eventually welcome two little girls.

He befriended the staff sergeant in charge of the Powell River detachment who mentioned that the RCMP was looking for special constables. Carr was accepted and trained at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy, known as Depot Division. In 1986, he was posted to RCMP headquarters as a special constable with Executive Diplomatic Protection Services. Carr was just 25 years old at the time.

Carr’s stated goal always was to work on patrol as a street cop interacting with the public. After four years as a special constable, Carr took additional training at depot in Regina and was promoted to constable in 1990.

“To me, being on patrol means dealing with the public, wearing the uniform, helping people,” says Carr.

After a few years on general duty, he transitioned to the Surrey Traffic Unit where he spent the next seven years of his career. He was promoted to corporal as the traffic supervisor and then became the operations non-commissioned officer for the unit. Later, while working in Whalley, Carr began doing media relations for the traffic unit off the side of his desk.

“I worked on a couple of big investigations and put people in jail for 10 years for dangerous driving causing death,” says Carr.

RCMP personnel believed Carr could explain issues rather clearly to the public.

“From the beginning of my career, the media just seemed to always be following me around,” says Carr.

In fact, in 1996, a photo of Cst. Dale Carr carrying a three-year-old boy wrapped in a yellow blanket was on the cover of Peace Arch News. The boy was the lone survivor of his family, who were victims of a murder suicide by the father who allegedly shot his wife, two daughters, and a 60-year-old woman before shooting himself. The boy escaped and was scooped up by a neighbour. Carr rescued the boy and brought him to safety.

Image: Peace Arch News via BC RCMP / Peace Arch newspaper showing Cst. Dale Carr rescuing the lone survivor of a murder-suicide in 1996.

That same year, Carr attended the first drug recognition class and was trained in techniques used by U.S. police forces to detect and measure the effects of drug impairment in drivers. He became one of only seven drug recognition experts in Canada at the time.

A few years later, Carr took the BC RCMP communications media relations course and became the media relations officer (MRO) for the Langley detachment in 2000. He left that role and became the head of Langley’s crime reduction unit and bike squad.

When he returned to the detachment after a night shift on his bike, he was asked to meet the following day with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT), and was told to wear a suit. Carr met with the officer in charge of IHIT who said they were thinking of having a dedicated MRO and that his name came up. He thought that Carr was someone the team would trust and that he would fit it well.

“I said that I would need to think about it,” says Carr. He paused a few seconds, turned and said, “I thought about it and I would 100 per cent love to do this.”

Carr would develop the communication framework as to how IHIT would collaborate with the Lower Mainland detachments and municipal police partners. That was 2006.

According to a B.C. RCMP profile, RCMP personnel believed Carr was someone the public instantly recognized and felt they could trust. Whenever there was a murder at a residence or a shooting in a public location, Carr was front and centre, explaining what happened and reassuring people that they were not in danger.

For five years, Carr was the IHIT media relations officer before transferring to Chilliwack as patrol supervisor. He was in that role a mere 18 months before being promoted to sergeant and transferring back to Surrey.

That stop preceded a number of promotions that eventually led him to the role of superintendent at BC Highway Patrol in charge of operations. For Carr, the work of highway patrol officers can go unnoticed.

“The officers at BC Highway Patrol do a lot of great work that I think largely goes unrecognized, adds Carr. It’s not the sexy stuff. It’s not the homicide investigator; it’s not the drug investigator; it’s not the undercover guy. People think that all BCHP officers do is give out tickets, but they do a lot more. It’s BCHP that investigate when people die in a crash. They make our highways safer through commercial vehicle enforcement and enforce the Motor Vehicle Act on BC highways. It’s an extremely dangerous job. They’re working on the side of the road while vehicles are traveling at 120 and higher. People don’t obey the law to slow down and pull over. They never do. I just witnessed it again the other day.”

The sight of fatal crashes haunts him, however. It’s seared in his memory from attending crash after crash.

“I’ve been to hundreds of fatal crashes throughout my career,” says Carr. “When you go to a crash, and see the carnage, it’s very violent. It’s about the circumstances of how the people die. They are often just driving down the highway, minding their own business, and another vehicle collides with their car. It’s so senseless and preventable.”

Image: BC RCMP / Supt. Dale Carr on patrol.

One such incident haunts Carr to this day. After a woman, her parents and sister saw a play downtown, they took the SkyTrain home. A grade-school teacher, she wanted to pick up the baby chicks that had hatched from her school before driving to her parent’s house in her yellow Mustang.

“It was a horrific crash where a half-ton van hits the centre median, launches, and literally crushes right on top of her Mustang,” recalls Carr. “Her father can’t understand why she is taking so long. And then he hears on the radio that there had been a serious fatal crash involving a Mustang. He knew it was her and rushes to the scene. The other driver was impaired. That’s why traffic officers have less tolerance for infractions on the road. They want to change driving behaviour so they don’t have to deal with those catastrophic events. When you are in traffic and you see those things and you know it is preventable, you want to do the enforcement.”

Of all the milestones and highlights in his dynamic 37-year career as an RCMP officer in British Columbia, he recalls one very special occasion.

“One of the highlights of my career and very proud moment, was being able to present my daughter with her badge in 2007,” says Carr, who still has family in Chilliwack.

Sergeant Rochelle Carr now is a watch commander at the Mission RCMP detachment.

Carr will retire in early 2024.

by Mike Vanden Bosch

RCMP superintendent’s storied career began with a class at a Chilliwack high school

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