What do you hope to achieve in your term as Vancouver’s Chief Constable?
I hope that Vancouver becomes Canada’s safest major city. We have a huge property crime problem and our bank robbery rate is among the highest in North America. We also have more guns on the street than we have ever had, and the problems associated with illicit drug use continue to drain our resources. It’s a big challenge but we have creative and energetic people and we are making progress.

How has policing changed in your years with the VPD?
I have seen changes in the areas of higher complexity and workload. A homicide investigation used to take up a file folder – now it will fill a dozen boxes or more. In terms of call volumes, I can remember working a Sunday dayshift early in my career when I didn’t get a single call. Our officers now run call-to-call during peak call demand times and they are constantly struggling to keep up. We have high numbers of drug addicts, and the associated problems, such as addicted property crime offenders and open-air drug trafficking, are much worse than when I started my policing career in the late 1970s.

There seem to be increasing problems in Vancouver with aggressive panhandlers and gang warfare. There is also a feeling the city isn’t as safe as it used to be. Is this a real or a perceived problem? What can be done?
The problems in Vancouver are real, but the effects depend a lot on your lifestyle. The chances of encountering an aggressive panhandler are low as most are passive. I believe that increasing social services to the poor, mentally ill, and drug addicted will decrease this form of street disorder. Ultimately though, enforcement has to be put in place for those who assault or physically intimidate others. Gang violence is usually confined to those who involve themselves in this risky lifestyle. We have had success targeting gangs – especially with our high-visibility interventions in downtown nightclubs. We’re “in the face” of the gang members and we let them know that if they cross a line, we will be there.

How did your experience at SFU influence your career?
I majored in business (personnel management option) and I took a lot of elective courses in criminology. This helped me in many of my assignments – such as recruiting, planning, and research.

What are your best memories of SFU?
I enjoyed debating drug laws with Professor Neil Boyd in his criminology class, and I really liked the group project work in the upper-level personnel management courses. And, of course, there’s nothing like the feeling you have after finishing writing the last exam in the last semester.

What do you do in your time off?
I work out at the gym and I play hockey year-round in leagues and drop-in sessions. I’m on the ice one or two times a week.

What kind of music do you like?
I lean toward country music, and on Canada Day I dragged my wife out to the Surrey fairgrounds to see Ian Tyson play live.

What are you reading now?
I read all the daily local and national newspapers and I also read the weekly Economist. Every few months I will scan the non- fiction bestseller list and read whatever is generating buzz.

Kash Heed, BGS’01, MA’05
Kash Heed, a 28-year veteran of the Vancouver Police Department, is the new Chief Constable of West Van- couver. The much-decorated officer was instrumental in persuading government to set up the Integrated Gang Task Force, and his thesis research influenced the establishment of safe injection sites for drug addicts.

What do you hope to achieve in your term as West Vancouver’s Chief Constable?
My vision for West Vancouver is to make it the safest jurisdiction in Canada by 2010. I also want to move policing to where it should be in the 21st century. People have suffered from the traditional style of policing and need a new style, one where the organization is professional, accountable, and effective in delivering police services. There also needs to be cohesion in decisions on what needs to be done, a corporate business plan for the department, and achievable performance targets.

You came from the Vancouver Police Department. Is there a significant difference in policing in West Vancouver compared with policing in Vancouver?
The social order issues are different. In Vancouver there are some overarching issues that affect the city that we don’t have [in West Vancouver]. Other issues, such as property crime, are similar in West Vancouver and Vancouver.

You came to West Vancouver at a time when the department has undergone recent tension. How will your leadership resolve that tension and restore the community’s faith in the department?
I certainly want to be more inclusive in what needs to be done, both internally and externally. The new generation in policing, the echo-boomers, want more say in how things are run. My goal is to get the best out of those people by involving them. I also want to include and engage external stakeholders because the police are only one part in the many who have a responsibility to society.

How did your experience at SFU influence your career?
Massively! Absolutely! I would not be in the position I am in without having gone to SFU. Both my undergraduate and graduate degrees gave me the skills to move up. I cannot say enough good things about SFU and about the faculty there. The faculty are real quality people with excellent knowledge.

What are your best memories of SFU?
The students. I did both my graduate and undergraduate degrees while working full time in the Vancouver Police Department. It was such a refreshing experience to be around the students. I so looked forward to going to SFU on Thursdays and Fridays even though I’d already worked a full week. It got me away from work and into learning.

What do you do in your time off?
I’m teaching criminology at the University College of the Fraser Valley and people are trying to talk me into doing a PhD. But right now I’m kind of busy. I also play golf and religiously spend two hours a day at the gym. It’s not about building muscles – I get my mental energy from going to the gym.

What kind of music do you like?
I like U2 and other Top 40 kinds of music.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading Michael W. Quinn’s Walking With the Devil. It’s about the code of silence in policing and how destructive that code is. I’m also reading Norm Stamper’s Breaking Rank: A Top Cop’s Expose of the Dark Side of American Policing. Quinn was a Seattle police chief who has been highly critical of the U.S. war on drugs. aq

Photograph of Jim Chu by Martin Dee, Kash Heed by Mark Van Manen / Vancouver Sun.

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