Vancouver Chief Constable Jim Chu

Jim Chu, named Chief Constable of the
Vancouver Police Department in 2007, was
a JIBC Alumnus of the Year for his contin-
ued etforts to ensure quality policing for the
city and his support of the JIBC as a past
member of the Board of Governors. Born in
Shanghai and raised in East Vancouver, he
joined the department in 1979 and served
in a number of assignments including detective in the robbery
squad, sergeant in charge of the recruiting unit, and the depart-
ment's project manager for E-Comm, the area-wide emergency
communications radio system for emergency service providers.
In 2001 he authored a book entitled: Law enforcement informa-
tion technology: a managerial operational, and practical guide. In
2003, he was promoted to Deputy Chief Constable. He holds a
Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser
University and a Master's of Business Administration from the
University of British Columbia. He received his training as an of-
ficer with the Police Academy in 1979. not long after it relocated
to the Institute's vriginal Jericho location.

“The simulations that we did during training turned the Jer-
icho site into a mini-city We interacted with staff members and
trained actors that helped prepare us for going out in the field and
dealing with real situations. It wasn't just the Police Academy but
all the Justice Institute's staff who seemed to enjoy being in these
role-play exercises. We were taught criminal law, social sciences,
crisis intervention and patrol techniques in our basic training. The
investigation and patrol instructors were veteran Vancouver of-
ficers who brought a lot of insight and were very good.

“John Post was the newly appointed Director and he liked
to talk about the roots of policing back ta Peel's Twelve Principles
[Sir Robert Peel, the British Home Secretary in the 1820s, who
helped create the modern concept of the police force]: police are
the people, people are the police. The fact Is that we’re not an
armed force, but we're actually citizens who have special powers
and that this authority must be used with diligence and restraint,
with use of force only as a last resort. Peel's principles provided a
context for how policing operates in our democracy. It was very
helpful because up until that time, my exposure to policing was
seeing local police officers and watching American TV shows.

“A highlight for me at the time was that our physical train-
ing instructor, Corporal Pat McBride (who later retired as an in-
spector in Abbotsford) entered us into a tug-of-war competition
at English Bay. In addition to our regular training when the day
was done, we'd tow a bus around the parking lot. We entered
two teams into the competition and it was a real great bond-
ing experience. But we had the wrong technique. Our instruc-
tor taught us to stand with the sides of our feet into the ground,
which would have worked if we were on grass or sand. It turned
out the tug-of-war was over concrete, when the best technique
was to have flat feet with totally backwards posture—which the
winning team had.”

He points out that a police officer's role has become much
more complex. “There are many more case-law impediments
and legal constraints to policing than | encountered when | had
my initial training. It was simpler then—it was pre-Charter of
Rights. And also now because of the advances in forensic inves-
tigations, including DNA, evidence gathering and documenting
cases for criminal trials is much more onerous and difficult. So
the instructors today have to put more demands on the recruits
to learn more in the same amount of time than when | was at the
Academy.

“Our recruits are trained well, they’re prepared, and the
training is comparable to, if not exceeding, that of anywhere else
in the world, It's a very professional faculty with instructors con-
tinually trying to look for ways to improve. I’ve been exposed to
training from the FBI and the RCMP, and the training the Police
Academy provides is right up there with them."

As a former governor of the Board of the Justice Insti-
tute, Chu has followed the success of its international programs
“l've addressed Chinese and Saudi police officers training here.
This brings in revenue, but it also promotes internationally the
role of the police in terms of democracy, the rule of law and the
respect for human rights. The Canadian style of policing is differ-
ent from American or British ways, and we think we have a good
system that should be shared elsewhere in the world. And, obvi-
ously, foreign governments spending money to access Institute
training shows the stature the JI has in terms of the quality of its
programs and education."

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