Rick Hanson reflects on successes and challenges as he steps down as police chief
CBC News | Posted: March 13, 2015 6:14 PM | Last Updated: March 15, 2015
CBC's Meghan Grant sits down with outgoing top police officer as he caps 40-year career
There was a changing of the guard Friday as Rick Hanson left his post as chief of the Calgary Police Service and interim replacement Supt. Paul Cook officially took over.
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Hanson, 60, became chief in 2007 and between the Calgary Police Service and the RCMP has spent the last 40 years in policing.
Hanson has remained tight-lipped about his future plans despite reports he's headed for a run at provincial politics.
CBC News reporter Meghan Grant sat down with Hanson earlier this week to talk about his past, present and future.
- Here are some of his reflections, in his own words:
Hanson on his future
When it's appropriate, when this career ends, then the next steps I'll talk about whatever that might entail.
40 years is a long time [in policing] and I've been very careful over those 40 years to respect the position. I think that it would be, in the last week, very inappropriate for me to say anything about what I'm doing down the road. So I'll stick with that until my last minute, in my last hour, on my last day.
On leaving policing
This week's better, the first week was really tough, you look back on 40 years — even though that was a goal: to make 40 — still when you actually get the words out, it's a lot harder than you think it is.
One of the things that has been really gratifying over 40 years of policing is the people you meet who are really motivated by only one thing and that's all about doing what's right.
Unfinished work
Hanson has said he regrets Calgary still does not have a secure mental health detox facility. Grant asked him if he sees that in the city's future:
I think that Alberta more than any other province is a progressive province, it's not bound by the way things have been or the way things are. More and more people are aware that mental illness and addiction is something that has to be dealt with more effectively.
For too long we ignored the huge ramification of mental illness as it related to the justice system. We just cycle them through.
I'm never going to give up that one regardless of where I land after this because I believe it's something that really has to be factored into the equation if you're going to reduce crime rates and get people back to their lives.
I'm optimistic by nature and it's one of those things that I'll do what I can whenever I can to push that one forward.
A crime trend that needs tackling
We've got to get our legislation lined up with what's going on with criminals as it relates to the use of technology to commit crimes.
Encrypted technology means now you can commit a crime and communicate crime on your phone and it's encrypted. Even if [police] have a lawful order to intercept, you can't intercept that private communication because it's encrypted.
Like the director of the FBI said, at some point in the near future we're going to have to go to some family and say, 'your child has been abducted, we've got a lawful intercept order but we can't help recover your child because of our inability to access encrypted technology and information systems'.
If we don't get a handle on our ability to investigate techno-crime, it's going to have a huge personal and economic impact on the western democracies
Gangs and organized crime
We can never become less than vigilant as it relates to gangs and organized crime because they're transnational now. The links between offences committed here in Calgary to gangs in Vancouver or Toronto and from there into the U.S. or South America or elsewhere is huge.
There have been criminals that come here from other cities to commit a criminal act and then they're gone within hours.
We'll have periods when it looks like organized crime or gang activity is down but that is directly attributable to the incredible amount of suppression effort that is being put into that by a number of our units — guns and gangs, the gang suppression team.
The way our general investigation teams work now, the way the officers on the street work, the RTOC [Real Time Operations Centre], that is one piece that has to continue to be relentless. Gangs and organized crime in this city are not going away because there's too much money, it's too lucrative a market.
Choosing the next chief
We are doing things that no other police service is doing.
The risk is, if you hire someone from the outside, they could come here and say, 'Hey I'm an old school cop and I just believe we should be putting bad guys in jail,' and discontinue the rest of our activities on the education, prevention and early intervention side.
That's a huge risk because there are still many police chiefs who believe policing is about waiting for the crime to happen, do an investigation and then put the bad guys in jail. We believe it too, but every senior officer, especially those that are in the executive, have bought into the principle and totally support the idea that where we're going is the right way to go and if we stay the course, we'll have a greater impact on the community.
If people in this community like the way the police service is operating, if they think that we are on the right path, then the best selection is internally because that's how we'll keep the momentum going.
If we stay the course, this city will continue to see crime reduced at a rate far greater than any other city in the country, even as the city continues to grow.
Advice to the next chief
You always have to be skimming over the weeds. Don't ever think that just because you're the chief of police that you can't know what's going on at street level.
I learned more in weight rooms, exercise rooms and coffee shops talking to officers than I ever learned at chiefs conferences.
If there's a trend coming, it's the front-line officers that see it coming first and if you pay attention to them then you'll be aware of what's going on and that allows you to prepare for it better.