Tanner is currently the longest-serving active police chief in Canada, having served in that role for 20 years.
Tanner worked in a variety of areas including uniform patrol, criminal investigations, tactical rescue, training, intelligence, polygraph and major crime.
In 1998, he was appointed as Deputy Chief of Operations with the Guelph Police Service where he served until relocating to Belleville Police Service as Deputy Chief in 2000.
Tanner currently serves as chair of the Criminal Intelligence Service of Ontario and is Co-chair of the National Police Services National Advisory Committee (NPS NAC) which oversees a variety of policing functions for Canada.
[2] In January 2012, Tanner was appointed by the Governor General of Canada as an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces.