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OpEd: Recent police deaths highlight the need to support grieving frontline officers
October 28, 2022

Although long retired from law enforcement, my heart still skips a beat when I hear of a police officer being killed in the line of duty. I want to drop to my knees and scream.

I can remember every police funeral I attended – whether I personally knew the officer or not, it broke my heart. Most police officers experience similar emotions I’m sure, including having the events trigger deep and dark memories from past traumatic incidents they experienced over their careers. It’s never easy and it tends to drag down the morale of all police officers in the days to follow.


Sadly, Canadian police officers have lived through that nightmare again and again over the past several weeks, each death compounding their powerful sense of loss and in some cases their diminishing resolve.



The murder of Toronto Police Const. Andrew Hong on September 21 followed by the murders of Constables Morgan Russell and Devon Northrup of the South Simcoe Police Service – who were also killed by gunfire less than three weeks later, left police officers devastated and many were understandably asking themselves questions about the reality of policing in 2022. Some retired officers were publicly expressing safety concerns for serving members and occasionally stating words to the effect that they wouldn’t want to be police officers in these difficult times. That expressed sentiment spreads far and wide among communities and potential police applicants.


Within weeks of those two tragedies – that had already left many officers and citizens wondering if it could possibly get worse - RCMP Const. Shaelyn Yang was stabbed to death in Burnaby, BC. A fourth Canadian police officer was intentionally killed in 37 days. During all of that tragedy, Const. Travis Gillespie of the York Regional Police was killed in a traffic collision with an alleged impaired motorist while driving to work. As devastating as his death was, it did differ in that he was not actively conducting policing duties at the time of his death. Regardless, it added to the overall narrative about the dangers of policing.


All the attention to these events is understandable. It even had me pondering the risks of modern-day policing in Canada and the impact that might have on police recruiting and the future of the profession.

Canadian policing has seen similar dire trends in the past that at the time raised concerns that policing was seeing a new norm. Four RCMP officers were shot to death in an incident in Mayerthorpe, Alberta in 2005. Three more RCMP were murdered and two injured in a mass shooting in Moncton, NB in June 2014. The OPP and the Toronto Police Service have each had two officers murdered in a single incident at different times in the past 50 years. Over the course of a single calendar year, six officers were murdered a number of times in Canada – as recently as the mid 1980s.


That information is not meant to say it has been worse or to anyway downplay the tragic impact of four Canadian police officers being murdered in a four-month period. It was only provided to demonstrate that we have had horrendous years in this country in the past. At those times police officers undoubtedly questioned our ability to move forward, but we did.



For at least the past 10 years Canadian police have also been under fire from other perspectives.


Lots of individual issues can drop police morale, even without the loss of life like we have just seen. Budget and staffing levels are problematic in several jurisdictions, which ultimately impacts response times, stress and officer morale. In other cases, leadership failures at various levels in some police services have negatively impacted employee morale.

Bail and justice system issues loom large on the morale and officer safety fronts as well, when many cases dangerous individuals are arrested on gun charges while already on bail for similar offences but are seemingly released before officers have had time for a lunch break. Additionally, the anti-police “vocal-minority” vitriol of some individuals and groups that are captured in mainstream and social media feeds with cries to “defund police”, while making constant allegations of police racism and the unlawful use of force, challenges morale. Concurrently, officers respond to back-to-back traumatic incidents and to violent and protracted public protests. The ongoing stress emerging from the combined total of these challenges can very much affect a broad number of uniformed and civilian police employees.

Policing is a dangerous occupation with many risks to the physical and mental health of officers. Some detractors argue “well that’s what police sign up for”, which is ridiculous. We all know that many other careers are dangerous as well, but police face risk while serving the public and it is one of very few vocations where some people murder personnel for no other reason than their uniform. Although Canadian police are now better trained, armed and equipped than ever in our history and are well-aware of the inherent risks, none of them sign up accepting that being injured, psychologically scarred or killed simply comes with the turf.


As a group, Canadian police officers are second to none on earth. They will always face internal and external challenges in performing their duties; they will experience traumatic incidents, public criticism and sadly, the occasional loss of a colleague. I’m confident that despite those obstacles, they will continue protecting the public from victimization 24/7, 356 days a year. And thousands of young Canadians who are in high school or post-secondary education right now will apply and be hired to replace officers when they retire. But our police need our help and support.


They still don’t hear enough from the quiet majority that love and respect them. We all need to communicate our appreciation whenever we can. They do hear negativity – largely through nameless, faceless, social media trolls that either don’t have a clue of which they speak or have ridiculous and/or untrue criticisms. If have they did have a valid complaint, they’d bring it to the appropriate oversight body for investigation and let the cards fall. But instead, they anonymously fling dirt into the social media swirl to see what sticks. Good citizens could counter a lot of that damaging silliness by telling the many true stories of police professionalism and commitment to their communities.

Let’s all help these wonderful public servants through this current hard time – and offer our thanks when we see them, knowing full well that when we are at our worst in life, they will bravely respond to be there for us.

Chris Lewis is a former commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police and the current public safety analyst for CTV News.

Leadership involves risk, especially in policing

By Chris Lewis • March 28, 2026
Leadership is inundated with risk, every hour of every day, in all sectors. In policing, legislative authorities and established policy are the ever-present guideposts, but occasionally policy just doesn’t apply. At times someone has to just make a decision to do something, or not, or they will fail the public they serve and the personnel it is their duty to lead. If it goes bad, time to own up, do damage control, learn from it and move forward. It always frightened me when I saw some at the senior executive level in policing think that supervisors and managers operate in a pristine little bubble where nothing should ever go wrong. Then when it did because some supervisor tried their best to make something work for all the right reasons, they wanted to pigeon-hole the person that took the risk. There were times during my own career when executives were not encouraged to take any risk either. In fact, taking risk was career risk in itself. Despite the best of intentions, if it went bad, the one ‘responsible’ be forever labelled as having failed. Even if the gamble went well, the jaundiced eyes from above would still forever look at them as being a potential liability. It became the “Oh, him. He’s the one that...” At times the daily decision making of high-level commanders would be second-guessed by those in the executive suites – some of whom had never really commanded anything. My buddy retired Chief Wayne Frechette used to describe these folks as: “They’ve never been out after dark on company time.” I know this same concept was alive in many other police services. Some at executive levels actually did serve in operational roles at some point but they never took a risk. Somehow, they were fortunate to skate through difficult situations through sheer luck as opposed to good decision-making and never developed any scar tissue along the way. They didn’t learn from failure – they survived by luck. They also were viewed by weak executives above them as being golden because there was never a milli-second of negativity around them. They were Teflon. But those that worked under their “command” (for lack of a better word) had no respect for them. They simply watched them walk around with coffee in hand, never leaving the office or making a decision. It wasn’t leadership, but it did pave the way to stardom from on high, for some. True leaders do take risks at times. Many I worked with and for did it all and did it well. They did so in the best interests of those they served and those they led, because it wasn’t about themselves, but was done in the service of those that placed their trust in them. Policy simply doesn’t fit every situation. It is most often a guide that anticipates most circumstances that employees will face, particularly the more common (high-frequency) ones. But it cannot predict every possible scenario. When that happens in policing, it can occur in very unlikely situations (low-frequency) that are incredibly high-risk. Supervisors cannot say “Sorry folks, the book doesn’t cover this one” and run away crying. They also don’t have time to tell bad guys, “Hey big fella, sit tight. We need to take a pause here and get the whiteboard out so we can have a group-think about how to stop your murderous rampage.” I think that many pseudo-leaders – far too many, are afraid to make risky decisions out of fear that an error will jeopardize their career. Instead, they risk their careers by not making decisions. Or as I like to say: “their fear of career-risk, risks their careers.” This can be fatal in the policing world. When a police supervisor shirks their responsibilities or quivers, sucks their thumb, and prays for the situation to go away, thankfully constables will come forward and do their best to get their teammates through it. Sometimes that ends well and when the supervisor emerges from their fear-induced coma, they will more often than not take credit for the success. But when the situation goes to hell-in-a-handbasket – despite best efforts, the pseudo-leader will document the risk-taking employee and add another bullet-point to their list of things they’ve done to “hold people accountable.” The panel at their next promotional interview will likely hear the false rendition proudly told. I hear examples of this practise from serving police officers across North America on a much too frequent basis. True leaders develop a culture of trust among those they lead that their suggestions and feedback are encouraged and valued. Their confidence that the leader wants their input encourages them to constantly analyze situations and give thought to what policy says and the options available when policy says nothing. That is good for the employee’s development and may save the leader’s hind-end and the continuity of the team on occasion when an employee steps forward in a crisis. Having said that, there will clearly be situations where there isn’t time for the whiteboard, and a decision needs to be made by the responsible “leader.” When it doesn’t work out, the real leader will step forward and be accountable. But when it does go well, the true leader will allow the light to shine on the team they have the honour to lead. In my view, we’re not seeing enough of that in North American policing. We need more genuine leaders at all levels of law enforcement organizations. Developing and promoting real leaders that can manage risk effectively is a must. Anything less fails everyone.

Why Joint Forces Operations Are No Longer Optional

By Chris Lewis • March 26, 2026
They used to be simply a "nice to have."

Police investigating police: Is there another option?

By Chris Lewis • March 18, 2026
The March 17 th announcement by the Toronto Police Service (TPS) regarding the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation into allegations by an Ontario Justice that three TPS officers colluded and lied during a 2024 murder trial against a man that ran over and killed TPS Constable Jeffrey Northrup in 2021, has further inflamed the debate over who should investigate alleged police wrongdoing. This instance combined with the recent arrests and ongoing police investigation into several TPS officers for their alleged involvement with organized crime, has brought this discussion to a boiling point. I appreciate the public perceptions around this investigative model given that the average citizen doesn’t necessarily understand the professionalism and commitment of police investigative teams like the recent OPP Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) group. I have all the confidence the world in that team, but I also personally know the ability and integrity of the OPP Detective Inspector in-charge. So, if these investigations aren’t carried out by police, who will do them? They do not fall under the mandate of the Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which by the way is largely comprised of former police criminal investigators and forensic identification experts, many of whom investigated homicides in police services. For SIU to assume a larger role, they would have to grow exponentially and expand their team of ‘former cops’. These cases generally do not fall under the purview of Ontario’s Inspectorate of Policing either. They would loosely fall under the oversight role of Ontario’s Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA), who is responsible for receiving, managing and overseeing public complaints against police, but frankly they don’t have mandate or the horsepower to conduct complex criminal investigations. They oversee the “public complaints” that may lead to a criminal investigation, but the investigation would be the responsibility of a police service to conduct. An expansion of the LECA would require a tremendous amount of funding and human resources, most of whom would also be former police officers. Hiring and training civilians to conduct such investigations is an option, but largely an incomprehensible one. Police criminal investigators are trained officers that generally start out as uniformed officers responding to occurrences and investigating more routine and less serious crimes, i.e. minor assaults and property crimes. They build investigative expertise over time, including in interviewing and interrogation; gathering and securing physical evidence; legal processes like obtaining judicial authorizations; presenting evidence in court; and various investigative strategies. They learn how to work with special police units that provide specific investigative skills, and more. All of this doesn’t happen overnight, but over a period of years and with the tutelage of more experienced investigators along that journey. Trying to turn a group of young and well-educated civilians – no matter how intelligent and well-intended, into a team of elite investigators, would be a complete disaster and unfair to the public or to the officers being investigated. Over my many years as a member or as the Director of the OPP CIB, my colleagues and I investigated criminal allegations against cops from other agencies. Before the SIU was formed, we investigated officers from many Ontario police services – large and small, who had used deadly force. Many were cleared and a number were arrested and charged. We also investigated criminal allegations against police chiefs in Ontario. Again, several were appropriately cleared, and some were brought before the courts. Municipal, provincial and federal elected officials were similarly investigated and some charged. Our members also investigated police officers in other provinces, including high-ranking ones. I personally investigated two Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers that were involved in an arrest that result in the death of a suspect. They were properly exonerated, but I would have charged them in a heartbeat if they had wrongfully killed than man. I arrested an OPP Sergeant for sexual assault. A CIB colleague investigated and arrested two different OPP officers for criminal offences. Both of those officers had been personal friends of mine and years later committed suicide. There are tons of similar examples that I can refer to over my career. All of these involved the oversight and legal analysis of a Crown Attorney, sometimes from another province. The interesting thing, and what most of the anti-police folks will never believe, is that in every single one of those investigations, the dialogue that I was involved in with other officers that I worked with or supervised, involved doing what was right. In other words, “If the allegation is substantiated, we will put the case together, arrest them and put them before the courts.” Not even once, did we think about or do anything that would give an officer a pass when they committed a criminal offence. Never. I have every confidence in the world that the vast majority of municipal and RCMP colleagues across Canada would operate under the same guiding principle. Has the occasional officer worked in conflict with that approach? Undoubtedly. Were some investigators not as committed or capable as they should be and perhaps did a poor investigation accidentally or deliberately? Quite likely so. But I truly believe those cases are the exception, not the rule in criminal investigations. Where I more often believe poor investigations or deliberate attempts to inappropriately give a colleague a break continues to occur, is in Police Act investigations, where policy or employee harassment wrongdoings are suspected. I like to think that the focus on that continues to improve, but not fast enough in some cases. Sadly, I know now that unbeknownst to me at the time, it happened under my watch. A focus for my next article. The public and police deserve the very best of investigators to ensure that bad cops are effectively put out of business and good officers are cleared. If there’s another effective option that would appease the doubting public – aside from using current officers from other agencies or creating a new and costly entity that would be staffed by former police officers, I’d like to hear it.