Vancouver: Deputy Chief Constable Steve Rai has been become the President of the BC Association of Municipal Chiefs of Police.
Steve Rai has been a member of the Vancouver Police Department since 1990. He was born in Punjab, India, and immigrated to Vancouver at a young age. Prior to joining the Department, he was a Canadian Forces Reserve member and attended the University of British Columbia where he completed a bachelor of arts degree in Asian studies. He also completed a master of arts in criminal justice from the University of the Fraser Valley.
Rai started his career with eight years as a patrol constable in District 3, where his duties included field training and mentoring new police officers. He also drew on his cultural background to work extensively, at the street level, with the District’s South Asian community. He also completed assignments in the Vancouver Police Jail, as a Recruiting Unit investigator, and a secondment to the former Coordinated Law Enforcement Unit. He completed a second operational tour in District 1, including managing the Davie Street Community Policing Office, where he partnered with local community leaders, business owners, and volunteers to address neighbourhood crime and order issues.
In addition to his regular duties, Deputy Chief Constable Rai completed a number of concurrent assignments, including ten years as an Emergency Response Team Hostage Negotiator, six years with the VPD’s Critical Incident Stress Management Team and three years with the Forensic Interview Team, utilizing his Punjabi second language skills.
He was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 2003, and returned to District 3 as an operational supervisor. In 2004, he was transferred to the position of Sergeant-in-charge of the VPD Recruiting Unit. During this assignment, he led a highly motivated team of investigators in fulfilling the Department’s mandate of hiring a large number of police officers, Jail Guards and Traffic Authority members. His team was successful in attracting numerous new exempt police officer applicants while also hiring many Aboriginal, ethnic, and female recruits through community outreach and mentoring of young future officers.
Following his position in the Recruiting Unit, Deputy Chief Constable Rai became an operational sergeant in District 2. He was promoted to the rank of inspector in 2007, where he took on the role of the Executive Officer in the Chief Constable’s Office. In 2008, he was the Operational Duty Officer, and in 2009, Deputy Chief Constable Rai returned to the Training and Recruiting Section during a high-pressure time — the section was hiring a large number of officers in preparation for the 2010 Olympics. He worked in the Human Resources Section following this assignment and returned to District 3 in February 2012. In July 2014, he was promoted to superintendent in Personnel Services, and in June 2015, he was promoted to Deputy Chief Constable in the Support Services Division.
