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Meet the new boss: Johnston set to become Barrie's police chief

'We have been our own worst enemies,' concedes Chief-designate Rich Johnston who wants officers to be 'public sentinels or guardians in a society where there are expectations of us to be professional'

Growing up, Rich Johnston had dreams of being an astronaut, an NHL player or a police officer.

Although neither a career in space nor on the ice panned out — given in part to a lack of skills on skates — Johnston admits he's still pretty happy with the path his life has taken.

“A police officer is something I always wanted to be,” Johnston says.

He has been the force’s deputy chief since June 2021, and credits his parents for raising him with a long-standing desire to help others.

“They very much imprinted on me and why I wanted to do this. My mom was trained as a nurse, my dad was a social worker and I knew from a young age that there is no higher calling than a life of service," says the Mississauga-area native. "I know it sounds so cookie-cutter, but for me it’s not a job. There’s a passion for me to leave things better than I find them.”

As a member of the Barrie Police Service since November 1998, Johnston is set to officially take over the department's top job later this month when Police Chief Kimberley Greenwood retires after a 40-year career.  

Johnston, who holds the rank of chief-designate for now, launched his career in policing in 1997 at the age of 24. He was a member of the Ontario Provincial Police stationed out of Hornepayne, located more than 400 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie. 

He had been living in Toronto after finishing university and was enjoying the city life when he was hired by the OPP. During the interview process, he was asked if he’d ever been to northern Ontario. Having visited North Bay, the southern Ontario native replied that he had and was initially thrilled when he was informed that he would likely be getting one of his “top” choices for his first job.

“I had asked for Barrie, Kingston and the Sandbanks (near Belleville) … then they said, ‘it’s in a place called Hornepayne, do you accept?’… Well, you’re not going to say let me check.

"So when I started in Hornepayne, it was a bit of a lunch bag let down,” he admits, adding that going from Toronto to a place located five hours north of Sault Ste. Marie was a huge culture shock. “It’s not exactly like the middle of the city. It was really eye-opening.”

Johnston spent less than a year with the OPP before taking a position with Barrie police in 1998, where he has been ever since.

“One March break, when I was still in grade school, I learned to ski at this monster mountain called Snow Valley, and I thought it was the biggest hill in the world! We would drive up everyday for what felt like hours and hours … and I have very fond memories of Barrie that way,” he says.

It’s that fondness for the city that has kept him here after all these years.

After 25 years on the local force, Johnston has seen a lot of changes.

“Good or bad, that’s based on your perception. I am of the opinion that it’s been very positive. The community has grown exponentially,” Johnston says, adding the services offered in the community have grown significantly. “In terms of public safety service, it has developed in so many different areas that have been responsive to the community. I have seen it grow everywhere.”

Johnston says he doesn’t believe he’d be where he is today if not for Chief Greenwood’s support over the years. 

“I am sitting here because of Chief Greenwood. I don’t think under a more tradition-based chief I would have come to where I am sitting now,” he says. “Sometimes people see things in you that you may not see. If you’d asked me back in 2000 what I wanted to do, I just wanted to be a police officer. I still am, although I don’t really work for a living, I just push paper now.

"But it was all about being in that car and being out in the community. That’s all I wanted to do and I could have spent my entire career doing that.”

When Greenwood came on board in 2013, Johnston's plan to continue with the status quo was shaken up. 

“We laugh about it now, but she dragged me kicking and screaming away from my first love at the time ... and that allowed me to see the organization differently," he says. "For me, policing was about that immediate emergency response and it’s now strategic. Without her dragging me out and being very specific about it and seeing things (in me), I wouldn’t have had the opportunities.”

Johnston says he's honoured to have been selected as just the 13th chief of Barrie police since its inception in 1853, but admits it was never a role he saw himself in. (The OPP patrolled Barrie for a 10-year period from 1946 to 1956.)

“The ability to create change, I thought, became less obstructive the more you go up the ranks, but your ability to accomplish tasks has certain barriers removed the further up you go," he says. "To be that change-agent becomes easier.

“I can tell you I am sitting here not because of things I have done, but because of people I have worked with. I have been surrounded by some very fine people and they have propped me up.”

As a member of the “fourth floor,” Johnston says he looks at the department not in the traditional pyramid-style hierarchy, but rather more of a flat structure, where everyone supports each other.

“I know what I do, but the only reason I am sitting here, or the why for this entire fourth floor wears a red stripe, and she or he goes out every day and night and responds to emergency calls and is seen in the community," he says. "That’s the role of a leader in this organization, to support the individuals who are actually doing the job.”

Johnston hopes to bring an adoption of a different approach to policing to the table when he takes over at the end of the year, noting he’s gone back to school a number of times to further his education.

“I love policing, but there’s something a little lacking there. Culturally, when I started … you didn’t want to be book smart, you wanted to be street smart. If you had a degree, it was not always a good thing, and that’s changed drastically in our culture. My adoption of a research-driven approach to policing — we call it evidence-based policing — is based on evidence-based medicine.

“We know what works based on research. There is science behind it. Policing just didn't adopt any of those principles. We have known since the 1970s … that random patrol is ineffectual, yet most police services in Ontario and Canada still go out on the road and patrol that way.”

Johnston says he has a desire to see that kind of evidence-based policing reflected in the department’s operations. 

“Experience is important and it informs us to a degree, but the reality is that's one person’s experience … whereas when we talk about research, you can talk about aggregated data sets and the experiences of thousands,” he says. “It is that approach that I think I bring that you will see across the entire organization.”

Although he admits he has a whole host of things he plans to implement across the department, his biggest priority is on the front line. 

“It’s front line first. The members, that’s what this building represents, so I want to focus on their wellness, but also building and maintaining transparency and legitimacy in the community. We saw a change post-George Floyd," says Johnston, referring to the man who was killed by police in Minneapolis. "There's a decline overall in the concept of legitimacy in policing. That’s why that ethos change is so important.

"What are we doing and why are we here? I grew up with an awe-filled respect for police and it shouldn’t be out of a punitive reason or fear," he adds. “We have been our own worst enemies … in that belief that what we are doing is just that old concept of catching bad guys. It’s honestly about being public sentinels or guardians in a society where there are expectations of us to be professional, but to engage with our community and be seen as someone to run to as a positive service for good.”

The change-of-command ceremony will take place on Thursday, Dec. 22.


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About the Author: Nikki Cole

Nikki Cole has been a community issues reporter for BarrieToday since February, 2021
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