Sergeant Harrison Yates, voiced by Trey Parker, is a character in South Park.
He is an inept Irish-American officer for the Park County Police. He plays the general role of an officer, taking part in various investigations and situations. He is somewhat gullible and believes in the supernatural, and often wastes time by conducting extremely trivial investigations. When Michael Jackson, also known as Mr. Jefferson, moves into South Park and it is revealed that Yates hates all black men wealthier than himself and frames them—as Mark Fuhrman was accused of doing to O.J. Simpson—but panics and becomes disillusioned when he realizes "Mr. Jefferson" is black despite his "white appearance." He discovers Mr. Jefferson is indeed black, but when Mr. Jefferson decides he will give away all of his money, Yates lets him go, having no need to put another poor black man in jail.
In "Pre-School", Sergeant Yates arrests Trent Boyett when the boys accuse Trent of setting the former Pre-School teacher Miss Claridge on fire (again). The unresponsive Mrs. Claridge tried to tell Yates that Trent was not responsible (by beeping twice for "no" on her iron lung), but he misinterprets this as "yes, yes" and arrests the innocent Trent, landing him in juvenile hall once again.
In "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy", Kyle reports to Yates and the cops that the Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Stevenson, is in a relationship with his younger brother Ike. It is shown that Yates and his pals do not see anything wrong with women committing sex crimes like this one, and at one point remarked that he would have gladly hooked up with a sexed-up teacher when he was a kid. He proves to be more of a hindrance than anything else to the case.
In "Butter's Bottom Bitch", he went undercover as a prostitute after learning of an increase in South Park prostitutes. Though it was obvious when he was a man in drag (he retained his male sexual organs, his mustache and his hairy body), no one seemed to notice this or at least chose to ignore it. He also is unaware of the fact he doesn't need to have sex with the Johns to arrest them for soliciting prostitution, something that creeps out the rest of his squad. He seems to take his role so seriously that he not only has sex with his Johns, he also is involved in a bareback gang-bang with dozens of college boys, and he also "falls in love" with his pimp, runs off to Switzerland, is married for a year, before at last arresting him for being a pimp.
In "The Coon", Yates is the primary police officer approach by Cartman, in the guise of the Coon. While he seems to see the Coon as annoyance, Yates praises the assistance and work of the town's other hero Mysterion.
He is married to Maggie Yates, who shares his views on rich black men (she gave him support during "The Jeffersons" episode to continue his work). Ironically in "Butter's Bottom Bitch" he marries a rich black man.
Trivia
- Like all police officers in South Park, Sergeant Yates hates rich African Americans. He seems to have no issue with their race when they're poor however.
- Yates has essentially replaced Officer Barbrady as the primary South Park inept police officer.
- In "The Coon", Yates essentially plays the unwilling role of Commissioner Gordon to Cartman's Batman-esque super-hero idenity "The Coon"