Barrie Police Chief Kimberley Greenwood has come a long way since being a young recruit fresh out of high school and she’s proud of that journey.
Greenwood, who was born and raised in Toronto, started her career as a cadet with the Toronto Police Service, where she spent the next 30-plus years making her way up through the ranks before being hired for the top job as chief of the Barrie Police Service in March 2013.
Now, after more than four decades in policing, Greenwood is preparing to turn in her badge and uniform, while looking forward to some much-needed down time. Although the active outdoor-enthusiast won’t be seen on any local pickleball courts, Greenwood plans to take advantage of her extra spare time to enjoy some of her favourite outdoor activities, from kayaking and swimming to snowshoeing.
“I think having the flexibility is what I’ll cherish — and being able to spend more time with my family," she explained.
Although this winter she will likely be seen wearing a toque most of the time, Greenwood has worn a variety of different hats during her policing career, ranging from front-line community response and working in a child abuse investigative unit to the professional standards division and working as a staff superintendent at Toronto police headquarters before heading north on Highway 400 to serve as Barrie’s ninth chief of police — and the city’s first female chief.
Greenwood, who will turn 60 in December, just in time for her official retirement at the end of 2022, says she knew from the time she was a teenager that she wanted to pursue a career in law enforcement.
“I wanted to serve. I wanted to make a difference in the neighbourhoods and communities in Toronto,” says Greenwood, adding she'll walk away feeling like she accomplished what she set out to do all those years ago.
“I loved working with the community at every rank I have had within policing,” she says, pointing to being selected as chief of police for Barrie as one of the highlights of her career. “I have had the opportunity to work with phenomenal people and I think that’s a highlight for me — the people I have been able to work with from the time I started my career to where I find myself right now.”
The ability to seek out opportunities that would not only develop her personally but that would also contribute to both the service and the community is something else she also takes pride in.
Looking back on her nearly decade-long run as Barrie's police chief, Greenwood recalls being welcomed openly by both the community and the service, adding she recognizes that policing has changed significantly since she first walked through the doors of the department’s former Sperling Drive headquarters several years ago.
Both community and members’ expectations have changed, she says, noting the department has worked through a plethora challenges, whether it be the pandemic response, the impact of international events such as the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis or the Defund the Police movement.
“The collaboration and the need to build and foster relationships, those are the big things that I see,” Greenwood says when asked what she believes are some of the biggest impacts she’s made during her tenure in the city. “We have modernized as an organization in the way we look at some of our initiatives from an alternative response perspective."
The police department also partnered with the Canadian Mental Health Association and Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre "in dealing with the challenges of the vulnerable people in our community and how we best serve those individuals, but it’s about those partnerships and social agencies working with us to make a difference," she adds.
When she joined Toronto police in 1981, Greenwood was one of approximately 110 female officers out of the more than 5,000 rank-and-file who made up the force, a fact she said she’s proud to have seen change over the years.
“There weren’t many of us in the occupation. When I graduated from the police college, I was assigned to a division that didn’t even have a female change room," Greenwood says. "I changed in a public bathroom and my locker was in a hallway. In retrospect, yes, that was a barrier, but at the time, I didn’t really see it as a barrier, because I just wanted to be a police officer. I could still don my uniform and go out on the road and be a cop. That was my goal.”
Greenwood was also the first female assigned to her platoon, noting her fellow officers at the time had never worked with a woman before.
“I’d say my platoon encouraged and supported me as I was being trained and I was being coached. They wanted me to succeed and that’s really important," she says. "They helped me to be a good police officer."
Greenwood also says she feels fortunate to have been able to make her way up the ranks of Toronto police the way she did.
“I sought out opportunities and sometimes I wasn’t successful, but I never felt that was based on my gender. On occasion I was given opportunities, probably because of my gender," she says.
The chief recalls one case, where she went undercover inside a bank, as a case that stands out in her memory as being particularly exciting.
“When I started, I hadn’t been on the job very long and there were a series of bank robberies occurring at one location," she recalls. "I was assigned to work inside the bank and in my mind I had analyzed the dates, times, the descriptions so I was anticipating the bank robber was going to come in in the afternoon
"But he tricked me and came in in the morning,” Greenwood says. "My partner and I — they tagged us Cagney and Lacey at the time (after the TV show) — we caught him. That was exciting.”
The veteran officer says she has also seen the role of police change from simply being “crime fighters.”
“We do law enforcement, but we also prevent crime, we serve our community and we have to have so many more skills and access to tools that we didn’t have when I first started policing," she says. "The job of a chief, along with the leadership team, it’s our job to identify the right tools and skills and ensure our members have the knowledge and ability to do their jobs.”
As the 13th female chief of police in Canadian history, Greenwood admits that when she first took on the job, she often tried not to focus on that fact.
“When you put a number to that, I was actually shocked,” she says. “When I first came to Barrie, everyone was saying (it) and at that time I was downplaying it. I was the ninth chief… that’s how I looked at it. But in retrospect, I think it’s important to celebrate being a female chief. Now I really encourage women to celebrate being a woman in policing.”
Just as the eight chiefs before her, Greenwood hopes she will leave even a small legacy behind when she hands over the reins at the end of the year.
“We have made many changes within the service. We have modernized with the times in the last 10 years and we have changed our equipment, so I would say our members are the best equipped in the province,” she says. “We have conducted many reviews seeking input from the community and our membership to be better at what we do. When I first arrived one of my goals was for the service to be directly engaged with the community.”
The local police department, Greenwood adds, has done significant work with its community partners in an effort to put a personal side to the face of every police officer and every civilian member with Barrie police.
“I hope members see that we have evolved and that we have a service of innovation. That hope our service members recognize that decisions that were made were based on the interest of our members and the community," she says.
Looking back on the trajectory of her long career, Greenwood admits she never would have guessed she’d be sitting where she is today.
“I joined policing following in my dad’s footsteps. Where I worked, what rank I was… I had a significant work ethic and I was driven. I sought opportunities and was provided with opportunities, (and) every opportunity I took and I developed more and progressed through the organization. I never thought, ‘it would be great to be a supervisor or a sergeant',” she says.
“When this opportunity came available in Barrie, I wanted to contribute at an executive level to policing and I felt this would be a good fit.”
Even after all these years, Greenwood’s passion still lies where she got her start: on the street.
“Do I miss being on the road? Certainly, because that’s where you start and you never forget that," she says.
As for what’s next, Greenwood says she plans to stay involved in her community in some way or another.
“I’d like to pay it forward, just in a different role in our community now. I wanted to make a difference when I started work, and now I want to be that difference in the community just in a different way," she says.
As she prepares to walk away later this year, Greenwood says she feels honoured to have served as a police officer — and as a chief.
“It has been so much more than I ever dreamed of. It’s been so fulfilling.”
