Police chief Evan Bray announces retirement

Regina’s top cop is stepping down.

Police Chief Evan Bray announced his retirement on Twitter on Wednesday morning.

Yesterday, I announced to the Board my intention to retire. Being Regina’s Chief of Police has been the biggest honour of my professional life! I truly value the friendships and relationships I have had the opportunity to make over the years. pic.twitter.com/49FwPmPBhy

— Chief Evan Bray (@evanjbray) March 29, 2023

Bray said being Regina’s police chief has been the biggest honour of his professional life.

This year marks my 28th year with the Regina Police Service and 7th year as Chief. In that time, although there have been significant challenges, I have been witness to some of the most incredible acts of bravery, professionalism and human connection.

— Chief Evan Bray (@evanjbray) March 29, 2023

Bray appeared on the Greg Morgan Morning Show immediately after tweeting about his retirement. He said there are many reasons behind his decision to move on.

“I’m excited about the opportunities for the service and for myself as well,” he said.

Bray said he faced his fair share of challenges throughout his seven-year tenure as police chief.

“(It’s) one that isn’t (necessarily) one the public sees, but the challenge of keeping our members healthy. Policing is more and more complicated all the time and the notion of an occupational stress injury (and) the mental health of police officers (have) absolutely been … in the forefront,” he said.

Bray looked back at the 2018 teepee protest in front of the Legislature and the Unifor strike at the Co-op Refinery in 2019-20.

“(That) was one of the biggest labour strikes in the last three or four decades in (Regina),” the police chief said. “(Then there’s) the James Smith Cree Nation (stabbings), which ended up taking part of the Regina piece of history … because of course we thought at one time (the suspects) were in town, so we were fairly significantly involved in the communication of that.”

On top of that, Bray was Regina’s police chief during the COVID-19 pandemic had to deal with a defund-the-police movement.

He said policing has changed significantly since he started his career 28 years ago.

“My son, who’s a police officer up in Saskatoon, likes to remind me, ‘Dad, it’s changed a lot. It’s not like when you started,’ but some ways (that’s) very true,” he said. “The amount of guns, the amount of drugs in the community right now, just the complexity of crime has really changed.

“Communication has changed, of course, with social media. Every time a police officer (does something), chances are someone’s getting it on video.”

Bray added he doesn’t believe recording police officers is necessarily a bad thing, but said it does change the narrative.

“Once that gets posted online, then the police are looked to for, ‘OK, what’s your side of the story? What happened in this instance?’ Those types of things,” he said.

“Technology is crazy. Now every (police) car has a computer in it. I hate to date myself, but back when I started, we had small little computers that basically had the words on it, but no pictures.”

Bray’s last day will be June 30.