Looking back over his career, outgoing Victoria Police Chief Jamie Graham always liked catching the bad guy.
Maybe that’s why, even when sitting as the city’s top cop, wading through the politics of policing and balancing budgets, he still maintained a habit of pulling over speeders or impaired drivers.
“I caught an impaired driver today,” he boasted at the start of his exit interview with the Times Colonist.
Graham, 65, will retire at the end of this month after five years as Victoria’s chief. He took over from former chief Paul Batters-hill, who resigned after an affair with a Victoria police- board lawyer became public.
Graham’s tenure was not without controversy either, as his outspoken nature sometimes found him in hot water.
Graham was disciplined for a comment he made at a security conference before the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in which he revealed that an undercover officer had been the driver on a bus full of protesters.
“These things happen and I can’t worry about it,” Graham said. “I accept the fact that when I speak … everything I say is being recorded. So I try my best not to be controversial, but I have something to say and I say it.”
Graham also was found in neglect of duty in February 2012 for leaving his loaded service pistol in its holster under the seat of his unmarked police vehicle, in the police parkade. It was an embarrassing gaffe, given it happened the day the department admitted a cache of riot gear had been stolen.
He rarely shied away from the limelight, and was a vocal proponent of regionalized policing in Greater Victoria and critic of the politics that prevent it.
“We have countless examples, we almost have examples every day where we could be so much more effective in a regional force,” Graham said.
“There’s absolutely no doubt that the political interference from nearby mayors, in not at least examining regional solutions, is what’s holding us back. It’s that: ‘Why would I be interested, who cares about the region? It’s of no interest to my little community.’ What a short-sighted attitude.”
Graham was criticized in 2009 for pulling the Victoria police out of the Regional Crime Unit, an integrated team of officers focusing on the prolific offenders who commit the bulk of the crime in the region and operate across jurisdictional borders.
Graham said at the time that the department was paying too much to chase criminals in the West Shore and Saanich. Others said the move was a hypocritical move for an advocate of regionalized policing.
The chief also butted heads with Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, who led the effort to ditch the Victoria police in favour of the RCMP, a move eventually blocked by the province. The township had long complained that Esquimalt residents weren’t getting the dedicated police presence they’d been promised when the two police departments merged in 2003.
“I’m proud of what we deliver,” Graham said. “Esquimalt, at the drop of a hat, has the full forces of 250 officers and 100 civilians at their disposal.”
Graham said that with the proliferation of smartphones, everyone has a video camera in their pocket, but that shouldn’t change the way officers police the streets.
Graham stands firmly behind the two Victoria officers caught on a viral YouTube video forcibly arresting Tyler Archer after a brawl outside a downtown nightclub in March 2010.
After a lengthy public hearing ordered by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, Sgt. Chris Bowser, who can be seen kicking and kneeing Archer, was found to have abused his authority and used unnecessary force.
“I still support the officer. I mean, I promoted him right afterward,” Graham said.
He said the department had grounds for an appeal, but the officers were tired of having the case dragged out in the media.
“I get paid to be in the public eye. But a lot of these officers, they don’t. They get noticed when they go places and they don’t want to be. Sometimes, the scrutiny is unfair.”
Graham led the Vancouver Police Department from 2002-07, after nearly 35 years with the RCMP.
His last day on the job here will be Dec. 19, when he has to appear in court for a “liquor pinch I wrote a guy in front of the Empress on Canada Day. He was bent over, working on a big mickey of vodka.”
After that, he’ll be driven away from the station in a vintage police cruiser, wishing he could do the driving instead of kicking up in the back seat.
“I thought, I should get in and drive it ... give me the keys.”
