Police Chief Rob Davis is leaving the Brantford Police Service when his contract ends in September.
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While board chair Coun. Greg Martin declined to say Thursday whether Davis is leaving or has been released by the board, he confirmed the chief is leaving.
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“The police board has approved the process of hiring of an employment firm to replace him,” Martin said.
He added that the board will release a statement about the move in March.
Meanwhile, Davis has remained silent on reports that he’s been seeking other jobs. Emails to the chief went unanswered.
“It’s no secret” Davis has applied to other police services, said Jeremy Morton, chair of the Brantford Police Union.
Davis came to the city from Lethbridge, Alberta in September 2019.
It was a return home of sorts – Davis is from the nearby Six Nations of the Grand – and the chief said he was hired to “modernize” the service.
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He’s established a new unit to focus on gun and drug-related crime, and has pushed for a substantial bump in the number of special constables to patrol the downtown, Eagle Place and Echo Place with an aim to reduce petty crime.
After a high rate of homicides in 2021 and 2022 (five and seven homicides), there were no homicides in 2023.
Davis left Lethbridge under a cloud as some blamed him for taking the police service there to the brink of being decommissioned by the province.
The head of the Lethbridge police union called his four-year tenure “a disaster” and a “moral crisis”.
More than half of the Lethbridge officers responding to a police union survey said they thought Davis bullied officers and staff.
In Brantford, officers soon began reporting Davis was driving away senior staff, some of whom opted for lower paying or less prestigious jobs elsewhere. Others complained of platoons being short-staffed due to officers being pulled to work on special projects.
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In 2022, Davis said such complaints often come from groups resistant to change and said he wasn’t trying to have everyone “like” him.
“As chief, my focus is to ensure the most effective provision of police services to the citizens of Brantford.”
Since November, Davis has been facing tough questions from city council after reporting a $1.64 million deficit from last year and proposing a 19% increase for this year. That increase has since been pared down to 16.4%.
Davis bristled at a request from city council that he appeared at a finance committee meeting in December to explain the police budget deficit, saying it would set a dangerous precedent.
@EXPSGamble
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