Q&A: Outgoing London, Ont. police Chief Steve Williams on his career, what awaits next top cop

London, Ont., police Chief Steve Williams will wrap up his time as the city’s top cop later this week, bringing an end to a policing career dating back three decades.

Williams announced in October 2022 that he would retire from the force after serving as London’s police chief since 2019, sparking an ongoing hunt for his successor.

Although his retirement doesn’t take effect until May 1, Williams’ last day in office is this week as a result of accrued time. Williams has been with the force since 1992 and has served in various positions, including foot patrol, detective and deputy chief.

Ahead of his final day, Williams spoke with 980 CFPL’s The Morning Show with Devon Peacock to reflect on his policing career, his time as London’s police chief, and what challenges await the city’s next top cop.

The interview has been edited slightly for clarity.

Do you have any plans for retirement?

You know, not really. I’ve sort of kept my options open, and my biggest plan right now is to sleep in a bit, and I’m going to take my parents to lunch, believe it or not. So that’s about it. I just want to breathe a bit and see where life takes me.

I’m jealous for the sleeping in part, that’ll be nice. When you got into policing, did you want to become chief one day?

I never, ever envisioned being chief of police. I started back in 1992, and I was fortunate enough to work in so many different areas. Mobile patrol. I was on foot patrol for a while. I was a detective for a number of years. I also worked on the corporate side. As I moved about the organization, I was really fortunate to work with some great people who taught me a lot and opened doors for me, and then it just sort of happened, and I’m glad it did. It’s been a wild ride, but, you know, I really attribute becoming chief to the people who came before me and gave me those opportunities, but I never really planned for it. But here I am today.

Not including anything that happened while you were chief, are there any cases that will stand out with you into retirement?

Yeah, I mean when I was a detective in major crime, and I won’t get into the specific cases, but there were a few that remain unsolved and, that still, I think about, and I know the investigators in that office now still work on from time to time when information comes in. I do think about those cases and, some of those aren’t great memories, but I have a ton of very positive memories as well.

You’ve had a lot to deal with during your tenure as police chief. Is there anything that was the biggest issue, one of the hardest issues to deal with and that comes to mind?

It’s interesting, because I’ve been asked that before, and it’s been, you know, shall we say, a very interesting four years. It’s been challenging, on top of COVID, which we obviously couldn’t have predicted…. But we were also faced with some major incidents, and the Afzaal family murders comes to mind, and there were some others, and then what’s going on our streets with poverty and homelessness. I’m very proud of our service and in the way the women and men have risen up and met those challenges, but it has been a challenge. But we’re still here. We’re still standing.

And credit goes to everybody from my senior leadership team right down to the front line, our communications operators, and the staff who take care of our vehicles. I mean, we’ve done a phenomenal job together over the last four years, despite all these challenges, which I would argue are probably historic in some respects.

Who knows what the future holds, but what do you view right now as one of the biggest challenges that your successor will have to deal with?

Yeah, it’s a great question. So most of the public is now aware of our staffing situation, and we do have a plan in place, which has been approved by my board. It’s going to be up to the next chief to see that plan through for the 52 officers, which really just brings us up to where we need to be, because that’s really taken a toll on our front line with our staffing shortages. So that’s going to be a challenge, and it’s going to take obviously a few years, and we’re heading into a new budget.

Just recruiting alone is a challenge in policing, let alone in London. It’s a situation where not as many individuals are as interested in policing as they used to be. So we’re still looking for good people with good conflict resolution skills and who are good communicators and have different languages and things like that, so there are challenges in that area. And really, we need to continue looking for better ways of doing business, using data to inform our activities, so we can police smarter. You hear the term evidence-based policing a lot. We’ve done a lot around that, we have some dedicated folks in that area, but we need to continue to push that forward. So it’s really about modernizing and ensuring our staff is taken care of and doing the best they can out there.

Why do you think fewer people want to be a police officer these days?

Well, I really think it comes down to really wanting to help people and make a bit of a difference. Every day you don’t come home from work thinking, ‘Hey, I made a difference today.’ But when I look back, I do feel we’ve made a difference in our community, particularly during the last four years when we look at the challenges we’ve had. I think there are people still out there who just want to make a difference, they want to help people, and we want to recruit those people.

You were a deputy chief before you became chief. The role of police chief has been filled internally since 1998. I know you are involved in the hiring of your replacement, but do you think the police board should hire from within for your successor?

Well, I know the board has to do their due diligence, and they look far and wide, which includes an external search and looking at internal candidates. All I can say is we spent a lot of time, myself and previous chiefs, in mentoring and developing internal candidates, and within the ranks, there are future chiefs and deputy chiefs that’ll service for years to come. There’s a lot of talent, and I’m sure the board will consider all of that.

We’ll look forward to that, and congratulations on your retirement, chief.

Thanks so much, Devon. Appreciate it.