You’ve probably heard the speculation: Police Chief Jim Chu, who plans to retire in the spring after almost eight years as head of the Vancouver Police Department, will take a run at politics.
At his news conference a couple weeks ago, Chu wouldn’t say whether he was leaving his post to pursue a political career. Was he being coy? Maybe. Or maybe he’s just going to put his feet up and watch re-runs of Adam-12 or Starsky and Hutch for the rest of his life.
Probably not.
Chu did acknowledge political parties have been interested in his candidacy, although he said he rebuffed offers with his standard line: I’m still the chief and until I’m not the chief, I won’t be looking for another job.
With a federal election date scheduled for Oct. 19, and Chu’s resume surely to attract the federal Liberals and Conservatives — maybe even the NDP — I asked a former police board member what she thought about the city’s top cop becoming a politician.
Sheryl Williamson was on the police board for six years until she retired last year. Williamson watched as Chu led a department through the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Stanley Cup Riot, Occupy Vancouver, the Oppenheimer Park tent city and crisis involving his officers, including a cop fired for selling drugs and another one punished for pushing a woman with cerebral palsy to the ground.
She knows, too, that Chu has met with politicians at all levels of government, appeared at news conferences and taken cabinet ministers on tours of the Downtown Eastside. He also built up connections in his role as head of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
As far back as 2008, Chu’s name appeared in a provincial government press release when the government announced it purchased six single-room-occupancy hotels in the Downtown Eastside for renovation.
I asked Chu about all this in February 2008.
“If it’s a matter that involves improving public safety, and the link between public safety and supportive housing is there, then we will be advocates for it,” he said at the time. “What we’re doing is becoming advocates for issues or situations that affect the citizens of Vancouver. So if it’s appropriate, based on that criteria, then you will hear from the Vancouver Police Department.”
I reminded Williamson of some of that history and asked whether she thought Chu would make a good politician. Williamson, by the way, once ran for a park board seat with the NPA and was appointed to the police board under former NPA mayor Sam Sullivan.
“I’ll put it to you this way: Find me anybody in a position of authority, like Jim is, who isn’t already a politician. Any person who has come through that and is in a position of accountability, a position of authority, a position that necessitates building strong and durable relationships, engaging people — look up politician, there’s the definition.”
Added Williamson: “There have been — here and in other places — police chiefs who do only show up when there’s been a crisis, in a very reactive manner. What Jim has done and done exceedingly well is be able to look at some of the concerns that affect the citizens of this city and Canada at large, in his role as head of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, and say: ‘Where can we address this? Where can we call it out? Where can we make a difference proactively?’ That’s been a real change in the way that policing occurs.”
So there you go, chief, you’re already a politician.
Please call me when you make it official.
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