He’s given freely of his time to his community and on Thursday, Bill Hackett was recognized for that and more.
A career member of the Kingston police, Hackett, now 88, has resigned from the police services board of which he was a member for a couple of terms. He served from 2002 until 2008 and then again from 2011 until the present.
Board chairperson Andrea Risk took time at the monthly meeting to acknowledge Hackett and his numerous accomplishments.
“Policing can be quite complicated and Bill had a way of explaining policing to the board, especially new board members, so that they could understand how policing worked and then they could understand what their role was,” Risk said.
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Hackett joined the Kingston police in 1951 and held numerous senior positions, including 13 years as deputy chief. In 1994 he was named to the department’s top position, a role he held for one year. Current chief of police Antje McNeely also had kind words about Hackett.
“I think of Bill as somebody who genuinely loved our community,” McNeely said, “and he loved police work and he loved the officers and he really embodied that in everything that he did.”
McNeely says it was actually Hackett who hired her many years ago. Altogether, Hackett, a Kingston native, served 44 years with the service. He was the lead investor following a riot at Kingston Penitentiary in 1961. He says that was a highlight, but not the only one.
“When I located a little girl that had been kidnapped and she was released unharmed,” he said, detailing another highlight. “And that was the satisfaction. I had young children myself and I know the feeling that you get during those cases.”
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Bill Hackett was about more than just policing. He was also inducted into the Kingston and District Sports Hall of Fame as a builder in 2004.