As Rob Davis’ tenure with Brantford Police Service comes to an end, he will now focus on the sunrise of his future.
Davis worked his last day as Chief of Police on Friday, June 21, 2024.
“I knew that when it was time to leave, I wanted my last day to be National Indigenous Peoples Day,” said Davis. “A few years back, the Ontario Police College started doing a sunrise ceremony on June 21 so I’ll be getting up at 4:00 a.m. and arrive just shortly after 5:00 a.m. to be there for when the sun comes up and it will be the last sunrise ceremony I go to as Brantford Police Service representative, but also as an Indigenous Police Chief. Afterwards, I’ll come back and typically there’ll be some events in the City so I’ll shake some hands, say some goodbyes and get to enjoy the rest of National Indigenous Peoples Day.“
Davis was the first Indigenous-born person to lead a non-Indigenous police service in Ontario.
“I’m proud to be Indigenous and I care about this region and the area because I’m from Six Nations. Up until Chief Sydney Lecky took over in Timmins on May 15, I was the only Indigenous police officer leading a non-Indigenous police force in Ontario; there are some that identify as Métis, but as far as actual status and being raised on the reserve, I was the only one for a while and now we have Chief Lecky in Timmins, so I’m extremely proud of that,” said Davis. “I won’t sugar-coat it, the majority of people have been awesome during my time as Chief, but there are some people that say ‘he only got it because he’s Indigenous,’ and because of that, I’ve always felt like I had to work twice as hard knowing I was on a finite contract to get stuff done and to show that I didn’t get the job just because I’m Indigenous.”
Davis, who started as chief on November 1, 2019, reflected on his last five years with the Brantford Police Service.
“On paper, I started in September so I was here but then I had to go back to Lethbridge, Alberta to tie up some loose ends and move. The change of command was on November 1 and that’s when I hit the ground running,” he said. “Those first four months in the Chief position, you’re still an outsider coming into a community so in November and December, you’re getting invited to everybody’s Christmas events meeting everyone. It was really a re-acquainting for me and so those four months flew by and then COVID-19 hit, and everything shut down on March 16.“
He said that when he took the position, the board made it clear that there was a need to modernize the force.
“One of the pieces they wanted to address was technology and I was actually shell shocked at how many paper systems we were still using. It sounds silly but when we used to use notepads, things like penmanship would get our submitted notes rejected and sent back to us,” said Davis.
“During the pandemic, we gave every officer a device and we implemented a technology called Smart Squad and so now every report we do goes into a respective record management system called NicheRMS. It really allowed officers to turn their cruisers into their office and because the generation of officers we’ve hired in the last decade were raised with a device in their hand, they’re more proficient in typing and so with Smart Squad, they can do their notes and such and with one push of a button, it integrates into our management system.”
Rob Davis sat down with the Brant Beacon to discuss his tenure with the Brantford Police Service on Wednesday, June 12, 2024 (Courtesy of The Brant Beacon).
The full story can be found on our content partner, The Brant Beacon.
The full story can be found on our content partner, The Brant Beacon.