When Barrie Chief of Police and University of Guelph-Humber alumna Kimberley Greenwood enrolled in the part-time Justice and Public Safety Degree Completion program at UofGH, the experience proved invaluable to her career aspirations because the program not only offered her a broad perspective of the field of law enforcement but it added an academic component to her credentials.
Chief Greenwood joined the Barrie Police Service in 2013 as the force’s first female Chief of Police.
More recently, the UofGH alumna was appointed president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP), an organization representing the voice of some 1,200 law enforcement members including chiefs of police as well as senior police leaders in municipal, regional, provincial, national and First Nations police forces.
Chief Greenwood graduated from the University of Guelph-Humber with a Bachelor of Applied Arts Degree with a specialization in Justice and Public Safety in 2013. The expertise and commitment of faculty members and the knowledge and skillsets she gained from the program made her education worthwhile, she added.
“The program provided me with a different lens on how I saw public safety and policing,” Chief Greenwood said. “It wasn’t just about the anecdotal piece, rather the program was about critical thinking and looking at evidence-based peer-reviewed academia to help support initiatives that needed to be done at the local level, province-wide or across the country.”
OACP: many voices, one goal
Taking the helm of an organization whose mandate is to advocate for change, and manage issues in policing is a privilege, Chief Greenwood said of her appointment as the president of OACP.
“As an organization, we (OACP) need to focus in on strategies to assist with police services to build the trust and confidence with the public,” Chief Greenwood noted. “We also want to be able to assist and influence all levels of governments with some of the planning with upcoming legislation around the legalization of cannabis, the Safer Ontario Act and more.”
Chief Greenwood’s key priority during her one-year term at OACP will be to ensure diversity and inclusivity are at the forefront. The OCAP members will also work together to find resolutions to the increase in violent crimes and the growing opioid crisis in the province.
Impeccable career graph
When studying at UofGH like most others in her class, Chief Greenwood was juggling work, family and other responsibilities but the flexible hybrid format allowed her to use her experiences in policing and combine it with some online learning and intense in-class sessions on weekends.
Chief Greenwood started her policing career as a cadet in 1981 with the Toronto Police Service (TPS) and two years later joined the police college.
From walking the beat to taking on an undercover role—with another female officer—and eventually becoming a child abuse coordinator, Chief Greenwood steadily rose through the ranks.
She was a staff superintendent when she left the TPS in 2013 to become the Chief of Police with the Barrie Police Service.
In her current position as well, Chief Greenwood remains a staunch advocate of community building.
