Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham is stepping down at the end of his term in August, he announced Thursday.
"It's simply time to move on," Graham told reporters.
When asked whether he was leaving policing or whether he would be seeking a job with the RCMP in Ottawa, Graham said he had not made any plans.
"I wouldn't speculate on those kinds of things. I've made no plans at all, I've had no conversations with anybody. I think that would be very premature and most unfair to the Vancouver police if their chief starts wandering about and making inquiries of other agencies," Graham said.
"My focus is this organization and that's where it will remain until August."
The chief, 58, was supposed to undergo a performance review next month in front of the Vancouver Police Board. Instead, he has decided to step down at the end of his five-year contract, which expires in August.
The union representing the city's 1,300-strong police officers recently endorsed Graham and his performance.
The police chief took over the Vancouver department in 2002. His decision to step down follows criticism for his supervision of a department besieged by allegations of brutality and criticism.
Earlier this month, a report was released that showed the Vancouver police department is among the worst response time in North America.
The department's average response time of 11 minutes and 25 seconds to major incidents was well above the seven minutes considered good policing for priority-one calls, according to the report that was commissioned by the city and the Vancouver Police Board.
Graham also presided over the case of the Stanley Park Six, in which two officers were fired, four suspended after taking three suspected drug dealers to Stanley Park and beating them in 2003.
And last year, the chief was on the hot seat again when he placed a bullet-riddled target practice sheet on the desk of City Manager Judy Rogers with a note that she took as a threat. The chief had written on the sheet: "A bad day at the range is better than the best day at work."
Graham later said it was supposed to be a joke and that he regretted "any confusion it may have caused." But Rogers complained to Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who chairs the Vancouver Police Board.
When asked to classify his relationship with the mayor, Graham described it as "very productive."
"The mayor and I are colleagues and had an excellent discussion at the meeting last night. We both have difficult jobs," he told reporters.
But it's the worst-kept secret in the city that the mayor and chief had bad blood between them, CTV's Vancouver Bureau Chief Todd Battis said.
"The two had a very tenuous relationship at best and in fact during the campaign which Sam Sullivan won and became a mayor he said that perhaps the city needs a crime czar," Battis told CTV Newsnet.
"And Jamie Graham said 'We have one and that's me.' So they got off on that foot and it's been a difficult period since then," Battis said.
Last month, Graham announced that four officers have been disciplined after taking a so-called "trophy photo" of a break-and-enter suspect at the city jail in November, 2006.
