New police chief discusses his history, policing approach

On June 24, Donnell Tanksley was sworn in as Blaine’s new police chief.

Tanksley, or “Tank” as he says most people call him, was previously the chief of police for Portland State University in Oregon since 2017. Prior to that, he was the assistant chief of police for Western Washington University for over three years. Tanksley was with the St. Louis Metropolitan police department in Missouri from 1993 to 2014, and held the position of commander from 2007 to 2014.

The week before his swearing in, Tanksley sat down with The Northern Light to discuss his interest in policing, how he hopes to approach his new job and how he learned to crab.

Can you provide a little bit of your personal history, and how you got into policing?

What made me really think about policing was after me and some friends and one relative of mine back in the late 1980s were going to go horseback riding and we were, what I believe today to be, racially profiled by the police outside of St. Louis.

The people in my car decided, “Let’s get something to eat.” So I exited the interstate, we went to a restaurant, stayed about an hour, and then we attempted to get back on the interstate and were stopped by four or five police vehicles.

The officer said I had failed to signal an hour ago, and somehow they had four or five police cars with him. They decided to put us all out of the car, and we all had ID, and they wanted to search the car, and I questioned that and that made them very mad. During this encounter, several times they called us n-words, they separated us and questioned us, and we all had the same story because it was the truth.

They ended up arresting my cousin for what they said was a warrant for no fishing license. Which, in fact, he did get a ticket because he failed to display his fishing license while he was fishing although he had one. He paid the ticket, but the department of conservation failed to record the payment although he had a receipt. So he had this, wasn’t even a misdemeanor, it was like a citation warrant. Anyway, they took him to jail.

It just messed our whole day up. I said to myself, there has to be a better way to police, there has to be a better way for law enforcement to engage with people. Because what happened to us was wrong.

How does that affect your approach as a leader within a police department? Do you feel like you’ve been able to be successful in making a difference as a result?

Eighty-nine percent of our job involves talking to people, contrary to what some people believe, that 89 percent of the time you might be pulling your gun or something. But it’s not. It’s talking to people, it’s trying to help people, it’s trying to assist people, it’s trying to defuse different situations, de-escalate situations as well.

So even if you’re in a situation where it may seem hostile as a first responder, as someone who works for law enforcement, you have to be able to communicate in a way that is not offensive to people. Although sometimes you may be in a situation where someone can be extremely hostile or extremely upset, we’re trained to be able to keep our cool. And that goes for anyone within the law enforcement field, not just police officers.

So what I tell people is, “Just take your time and listen to people. You have to listen to people.” There are times as a law enforcement officer that you do have to control the situation, but most times I’ve learned people just want you to hear them.

Do you have anything you want to say to the community in the wake of the previous police chief’s departure? Do you have any concerns about trust either from within the department, as a new chief coming in, or about the community?

From what I’ve read, that was a tough time for not only the police department, but the city of Blaine at large. Not just for the community members, but for the other people who work within different departments in Blaine. Because the police department isn’t just a separate, standalone department; we’re a part of the city.

So, what I will say is, my hope is to build upon mistakes people have made and achievements people have made. My job isn’t to go back in time, but my job is to take a look at those things.

And even coming in as a chief, I’m a learner; I’m a lifetime learner. So, I have to learn the expectations of the community, the expectations of the members of the police department, expectations of the city council, the mayor, the city manager, internal stakeholders for the city of Blaine, external stakeholders, business owners, faith-based organizations, nonprofits, I could go on.

I don’t have all the answers, but part of my job is to listen and to not make major mistakes. I think there’s a learning curve, but as I go about how I operate, I try to be as thoughtful as I can, and I know even the smallest decision could have a huge impact on a person.

You talk about getting input from different stakeholders, getting to understand both the community and the local government. What does that process look like for you?

I think the first thing is to take a look at how you balance it. How do you balance that process? You certainly don’t want to spend all your time out on the streets of the community and no time at the police department, and vice versa.

For me, first and foremost, I have to get to know my team members at the police department. I’m not saying these other entities aren’t important, because they’re super important, but I have to get to know the team first.

I think my best bet would be to come in and take things a bit slow and not to rush into any major changes. That’s never successful. But to come up with a plan, and not by myself either.

When you talk about meeting the community, I could envision quarterly roundtables with anyone who wants to come. And they wouldn’t necessarily be at the police department, because some people just don’t want to come to a police department. You could have it on a park bench.

What I’ve found is, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy, because people just want to talk and do it on their terms, and most importantly, do it at different hours too. I’m not an advocate of every other Thursday at 2 p.m., because not everyone is going to be able to make that.

So, to answer your question, just to be flexible, and to listen to those needs of all those entities and not just come up with this plan myself.

What’s your commitment to the community of Blaine? Do you see yourself having a future here?

I only have one job, and that would be with the city of Blaine. I’m committed to the city of Blaine and committed to the community. And not just to the city of Blaine and to the community, but to all of Whatcom County, I want to make that clear, and to the state of Washington. So I plan to be here for quite a while if they’ll have me. I am an at-will employee.

You told The Oregonian you like crabbing. Do you have a boat?

I do! A 19-foot Wellcraft. It’s a fishing boat, but I learned how to crab off of YouTube.

How long have you been crabbing for?

Since I was at Western. I got there in 2014, and I bought the boat in 2015. I bought the boat and I started going out just on small lakes. Then I was like, “Man, I want to crab,” so I started watching videos.

I watched a lot of videos. I started taking notes and making a list, and then I went to a couple of different sporting goods stores in Bellingham and said, “This is what I want to do,” and I went and bought my license and everything for crabbing, and I just went to Bellingham Bay – a kid from the city out in Bellingham Bay crabbing – and started catching crab.

Anything else you want to add?

I do want people to know that I’m very thoughtful about how I go about things, and I’m always thinking about, “How does this affect people?” or “How does it affect something that people may do?” Or it might not affect that person directly, but it might affect the way they go about things.

I do believe the purpose of law enforcement officers is to be guardians, not suppressors, and I believe that is important for not only the police to get to know the community, but the community to get to know the police.

It’s important as law enforcement officers that we get out of our cars, it’s important that we’re proactive in meeting people, we’re proactive in explaining the programs we have, we’re proactive in explaining why we do what we do when we do it. And the more education we give to the public, the more the public understands what we do.

If anything, just know that everyone matters, everyone is important and if you have a suggestion or idea or opinion, I want to hear it. I’m a people person, and that’s not just because of the position, that’s just who I am.