When Doug LePard begins his new job in early March as chief of the Metro Vancouver Transit Police, it will be almost as if he hasn’t left the Vancouver Police Department.
After a 35-year career – 12 years as a deputy chief – LePard will lead a 167-member transit force whose many members are former Vancouver police officers, including the deputy chiefs he inherits, Ed Eviston and Barry Kross.
“They both worked for me when they were inspectors at the VPD,” said LePard, who estimated the number of former Vancouver officers working as transit cops is probably in the dozens. “In fact, one of them is a former academy classmate of mine.”
The VPD announced Wednesday that LePard, 54, accepted the top transit cop’s job. LePard’s new post brings an end to a career that began in 1981 when he was 19 years old. He planned to retire over the next year or so until he agreed to take the new job.
“I’ve been here my whole adult life and I’ve had an incredibly rewarding career,” LePard told the Courier by telephone Wednesday. “But I knew that all good things have to come to an end. And after 35 years, it is time to move on and make room for other people.”
His words were similar to former chief Jim Chu’s when he explained why he was retiring last year. LePard was in the running for Chu’s job but stepped aside to support Adam Palmer, who became the VPD chief last year.
“As [Chu] said when he left, that meant six people got promoted and a recruit got hired,” LePard said. “So when I leave, five people will be promoted and a recruit will be hired.”
Mark Reder, chairperson of the Transit police board, said LePard was selected to lead the transit police because of his proven leadership and significant management skills. Reder described LePard as one of the most talented police leaders in the country.
“He’s not someone that we don’t know,” he said, noting LePard served three terms on the transit police board; Palmer is now on the board but recused himself from the selection of a new transit chief. “He’s a known commodity to the board, we know him well and it’s a unique circumstance when you can work with somebody who’s invested their time and energy to the organization, already. It gives you a lot of comfort.”
Palmer said in a statement circulated to media Wednesday that LePard was one of the brightest and most accomplished officers he has known, adding that he leaves an indelible mark on the department.
“I wish him all the best and look forward to working with him in his new capacity,” Palmer said.
The two chiefs will undoubtedly be working with each other, with LePard noting the most Skytrain stations in the region are in Vancouver. Historically, transit police have worked closely with the VPD and other police departments in the region.
Lawyer Douglas King of the Pivot Legal Society has spoken to LePard several times over the years regarding various VPD actions, including the mass ticketing of Downtown Eastside residents. King said LePard’s three terms on the transit police board obviously helped his chances of landing his new job. King’s perception is that LePard had a lot of influence on the transit police board.
“I interacted with the board on a couple of issues and I always got the sense that he was playing a leadership role,” he said.
Now as chief, King said, he will be watching to see what kind of tone LePard sets with his officers. He believes LePard is more a proponent of “pro-active policing”, where he said police aggressively engage with people to discover or prevent crime, as opposed to the traditional philosophy that police should respond to the community’s needs.
“The problem with that is that we already know that transit police have a history of questionable practice in terms of how they engage with people and who they engage with,” he said, pointing to a case in which two officers were sentenced last fall to a conditional discharge for assaulting a construction worker at a SkyTrain station in 2012.
LePard’s career with the VPD spans from his first days as a patrol officer on the East Side to his past 12 years as a deputy chief, one of the longest serving in the department. Early in his career, he worked undercover and was a member of a “strike force” team.
In the 1990s, he spent most of his time as a detective and a detective sergeant in the sex crimes unit. During that period, LePard created the domestic violence and criminal harassment unit. He also served as corporal in the crowd control unit and was on the front lines of the 1994 Stanley Cup Riot; in 2011, when a second riot erupted, he was on the streets as a deputy chief.
“They were not highlights [of my career] in that they were such an embarrassment and put a stain on the city, but I’m happy with the way that we managed those [events],” he said.
Along the way, he saved a drowning man and was shot in the leg during the takedown of a violent robber in the 2100-block of East Hastings – an event he described as one of the scarier moments of his career.
“It was a much more rough and tumble place than it is now,” he said of the East Side. “I saw a lot of action there.”
LePard may be more familiar to the public for his work and profile during the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, where he spent 14 days giving evidence on behalf of the VPD. The VPD eventually apologized for not capturing serial killer Robert Pickton sooner.
”We should have performed better,” said LePard, who wrote a comprehensive review of the Pickton investigation. “So it was right that we apologized and not hide behind lawyers or excuses.”
The inquiry led to improvements in how police handle missing persons investigations and serious crimes. The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry report described LePard’s review as an “unprecedented self-examination by police and a rare exemplar of how you can do [an] internal autopsy and try to figure out what went wrong so that it won’t happen again in the future.” The report also identified the VPD as a “best practice learning organization” and attributed that in part to the leadership of LePard.
“I am proud that out of tragedy that I played a significant role in those improvements in policing in British Columbia,” he said
A career highlight for LePard was overseeing the VPD’s investigation into the kidnapping of university student Graham McMynn in April 2006. Police rescued McMynn eight days after he was taken at gunpoint in South Vancouver.
“The intensity of that investigation I can barely describe,” he said.
As the Courier concluded the interview with LePard, he reflected of what the 35 years on the job meant to him.
”I’ve had such excellent people that I’ve worked for and I’ve had so many opportunities. I still pinch myself every day. I have been so fortunate.”
Note: This story has been updated since first posted.
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