‘Representation is huge’: Regina’s 1st Black female officer hopes to blaze path for others

When she was preparing to apply for the Regina Police Service, Const. Desiree Ates wondered if she’d ever seen another female Black police officer in the city.

“When I started to dig a little bit more, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, there actually isn't one. I'd better get on this application quicker rather than later,’” she said, laughing. 

Ates, whose father is Black and whose mother is Indigenous, said it was exciting when she graduated from Regina’s police academy in December and realized she would fill that gap as the city's first Black female police officer.

“Representation is huge and it matters a lot,” she said, adding she hopes her presence shows other young women what’s possible when they put doubt aside and believe in themselves and what they have to offer.

The Regina Police Service has said it wants to build a more diverse workforce. Visible minorities accounted for 6.9 per cent of sworn members at the end of 2023, a number that increased to 8.4 per cent as of September 2025.

Members have diverse life experiences, which is true of Ates as well.

The 34-year-old and her family originally lived in the U.S. state of Georgia. Her father served with the U.S. military before they moved to Regina when she was in elementary school. 

Ates has had a complicated experience of race and how she was perceived in the two different countries. 

“To an extent, people look at you and they immediately notice your skin before they notice a word that comes out of your mouth,” she said. 

“I felt like in the States, sometimes you were quick to be judged, whereas like here in Canada, I didn't really feel that.”

Canadians who may have been more discriminatory toward Indigenous people tended not to realize Ates herself was half-Indigenous, she explained. 

But now, as a police officer, she feels she’s able to bridge these worlds. People still tend to perceive her as a Black officer, but if she has a chance to have a conversation with Indigenous people in the community, it gives her the chance to explain she too has Indigenous family, with her mother having been removed from her own family as part of the Sixties Scoop. 

“Even though I'm in uniform, I still want to help,” she said, adding that help starts with building a foundation of understanding between police officers and the community around them. 

“We're not just there to enforce the law. Sometimes it's about relationship building, and that relationship starts being built before you even speak a word.”