Retired officer returns to Victoria police amid staffing shortage

VicPD’s retired-to-hired program is part of a larger shift in the department’s recruitment strategy, which will highlight the softer side of policing.

A former Victoria police officer is back on the job, just 11 months after he retired.

Const. Sean Millard was sworn in on Wednesday morning, becoming the first retiree hired through a new Victoria Police Department (VicPD) recruitment program.

The program launched in October, allowing recent retirees to get back behind the wheel of a patrol vehicle for up to three years.

“To come back on the road, to do what I love doing, to work as a constable instead of a supervisor this time with junior members—I jumped at the chance,” Millard told CTV News.

The initiative strives to address VicPD’s staffing shortage, which is a problem shared by departments across the country.

VicPD Chief Fiona Wilson said a handful of other retired applicants are at various stages of the hiring process.

Like Millard, they’ll work in the patrol division, where Wilson said the staffing shortage is most dire.

“We do have approximately 40 vacancies here at VicPD. That includes people who are off on maternity leave, who are on sick leave, (and) who are on WorkSafe(BC), for example,” she said.

‘A compassion profession’

An Edmonton-based criminologist and former cop said recruitment and retention are plagued by poor public perception of policing, particularly after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

“Policing has hit … an all-time low when it comes to police legitimacy,” said Dan Jones, justice studies chair at Norquest College.

“People see the police as kind of an occupying force at times, which is unfortunate, because that’s not what policing is.”

Jones said departments should change their recruitment strategies, which often depict policing as an “ultra-macho” career.

A 2022 analysis of police recruitment videos found many featured firearms, high-speed driving, canine units, tactical units, “and an emphasis on men, masculinity, and physicality.”

A recent recruitment video from VicPD checks off each of those categories.

“(Recruitment campaigns) still have helicopters and people jumping on boats and all this stuff that I never did and I don’t think 90 per cent of police officers ever will,” Jones said.

“They need to start looking at policing as a helping profession, a compassion profession.”

In the coming weeks, Wilson said her department plans to transition to that exact approach.

“We have members who work with a mental health nurse every day, responding to calls with people who are in mental health crisis. We have police officers who work with a child and youth care counsellor who deal primarily with youth who are in crisis,” she said.

“There are so many different facets of policing today that I don’t know that we’ve done a great job of highlighting.”

While a new PR strategy and the retired-to-hired program could help fill the staffing gap, she said the ultimate solution is budgetary approval for more officers. The department has an authorized strength of 269 members and is seeking funding for another 16.