Steve Rai has been selected as Vancouver’s new police chief.
Vancouver Police Board chair Frank Chong announced Rai’s appointment Thursday to conclude a national search for a person to replace Adam Palmer, who retired last month to accept a job as an RCMP assistant commissioner.
He becomes the department's 32nd chief.
"We are confident that chief Rai will continue to foster trust within the community, strengthen relationships and lead the department with vision, integrity and courage," said Chong, standing on a podium at city hall with Rai, Mayor Ken Sim, deputy chiefs Howard Chow and Fiona Wilson, and police board member Lorraine Lowe.
Rai had been the Vancouver Police Department’s longest-serving deputy chief over the past decade and recently assumed acting chief duties April 24, three days prior to at the close of the Lapu Lapu Day festival in south Vancouver.
The killing of 11 people on a stretch of East 43rd Avenue, near Fraser Street, attracted international news attention and catapulted Rai into a spotlight, where he became the voice and face of the department.
The role served as a public audition of sorts for the job of chief, with Rai appearing at news conferences alongside Sim and city officials. He also gave a speech at at the close of a memorial mass for the victims of the Filipino festival tragedy.
“This is the darkest day in our city’s history,” Rai said the day after the driver of an SUV plowed through a crowd of people on the evening of April 26.
'Don't want to create a police state'
Questions continue as to why police didn’t have officers or barriers in place to prevent a vehicle attack, although of outdoor special events planning and safety released May 16 supported Rai’s conclusion that the VPD’s assessment of the event was “sound.”
“We can’t predict one-offs, and we certainly don’t want to create a police state,” Rai said at one of the media briefings. “So the intelligence [during the assessment] led up to a proper deployment [for the festival].”
At Thursday's news conference, Sim highlighted Rai's leadership in the days following the tragedy.
"We were looking for a leader with deep operational experience, sound judgment and the trust of not just the community, but the department as well, and we did find that leader in Steve Rai," said the mayor, who was chair of the search committee.
Rai’s appointment as chief wasn’t surprising, with Palmer saying on the day he announced his retirement that that Rai or deputy chiefs Chow or Wilson would be selected to lead the department.
“These three deputy chiefs get headhunted on a regular basis all across Canada and beyond,” Palmer told reporters Feb. 18. “We've had police services from the United States headhunt a couple of them as well, and they are well positioned to lead the Vancouver Police Department.”
Wilson accepts chief's job in Victoria
Wilson has since accepted the job as chief of the Victoria Police Department and will assume that role in August. Chow, meanwhile, will stay on as deputy chief, a position he was promoted to in September 2017.
Rai was asked whether there was any rivalry for the job with Chow. He first responded by saying that he and Chow were good friends.
He then turned to Chow on the podium.
"Howard, are you mad at me?" he asked.
Chow stepped to the microphone.
"No, there's no rivalry," he said. "I'll tell you that I think it's an excellent choice for the city, for this department — and myself and the executive team will continue to support Steve. We've got deep respect for him in terms of the work he's done [and] how he's led."
The movement of VPD management means a competition will be launched to appoint at least two new deputy chiefs, with potentially eight superintendents — four women and four men — in line for a promotion.
Rai comes to the job as chief with an extensive resume.
He served as a patrol officer, worked in the jail and recruiting, was seconded to the Coordinated Law Enforcement Unit, managed the Davie Street community police office and spent 10 years as an emergency response team hostage negotiator.
He spent six years with the VPD’s critical incident stress management team and served as a policing district supervisor and as an inspector in human resources.
Rai said one of his biggest challenges will be ensuring young officers get the training and support they need on and off the job.
"We are a very young police department," he said, noting some of the first officers on scene at the tragedy in south Vancouver were 25 years old.
"Our frontline officers are essentially your kids, and we have to ensure that they're fully supported on training and behind the scenes' support in order for them to serve this community."
Other challenges the chief cited were resources.
"It's a competitive world for good applicants and recruits, and we're going to continue to attract the best," Rai said.
"And the third [challenge] is we're going to come to our best friend, Mayor Sim, and ensure that he gets the full picture of how this city is growing and policing is growing with it — and we're looking for support from all stakeholders in the city to ensure we're well set up to keep growing and keep innovating."
Rai born in India, Kitsilano graduate
Prior to joining the VPD, Rai served with the Canadian Forces Reserves while also completing his bachelor of arts degree in Asian studies at the University of British Columbia.
He then went on to further his education with a master of arts in criminal justice from the University of the Fraser Valley.
Rai was promoted in June 2015 as a deputy chief, joining then-deputy chiefs Doug LePard and Warren Lemcke. At a press conference, he reflected on his career and attributed his inspiration to become an officer from his father, Gurdal.
Rai was born in Punjab, India and moved with his family to Vancouver in the late 1960s, where he later graduated from Kitsilano Secondary School.
“I just grew up down the street from here,” he said at the time.
'I'm proud for my father'
When the family arrived from India, Rai’s father took on a series of jobs, including working in lumber mills in 小蓝视频, before he was hired as a building service worker at the VPD, where he worked in the jail.
“And he’d come home and tell stories about police officers and how neat and how respected they were and how much he loved working around them,” recalled Rai, noting at the time that some of those officers continued to work at the department.
“I’m proud for my father because he was another unsung hero. As an immigrant, he encouraged his kids to stay on the right path. And 25 years later, I’m standing here.”
His father’s influence also extended to Rai’s brother, Roger, a former VPD officer. Rai also credited the influence of school liaison officers for his career choice.
“I just wanted to come out and catch criminals and put them in jail and have fun and do all the exciting stuff that you think about as a young person applying for a career in policing,” he said.
“Never in my mind, did I think 25 years later that I’d be standing here as the deputy chief.”
Crime dropping in Vancouver
Now as chief, Rai’s tenure comes at a time in which crime continues to trend down, with Palmer announcing before his retirement that violent crime dropped 11.3 per cent and property crime by four per cent in the first quarter of 2025.
At the same time, the department projected in April that it will be by year’s end, with $5 million of the deficit associated with the Task Force Barrage strategy to dismantle organized crime networks and target criminals in the Downtown Eastside.
The projection of a deficit came before the Filipino festival tragedy and the announcement that the VPD spent $410,000 to purchase 16 barriers to assist in preventing future vehicle attacks at public events.
Task Force Barrage has been for the department, with Sim having to answer how the $5 million was dedicated without council approval — a point Green Party Coun. Pete Fry raised with Rai at a recent police board meeting.
In the hours prior to Rai’s appointment as chief, the VPD released new data showing violence and street crime has dropped in the Downtown Eastside since Task Force Barrage was launched three months ago.
Rai is expected to continue to support the task force’s work and advocate for bail reform, more mental health supports and housing, as his predecessors have done for a couple decades.
Rai earned $363,799 in 2024
As deputy chief, Rai had been responsible for overseeing the work of the department’s finance team when it comes to finalizing an operating budget. The VPD’s net operating budget for 2025 is $425,947,189, which is an increase of $14,639,956, or 3.6 per cent from the 2024 restated budget.
The VPD predicted in a report in 2023 that its operating budget will need to be almost half a billion dollars — $486 million — by 2028. The prediction does not include overtime estimates.
The figure was based on estimated salary and payroll benefit increases of 1,400-plus officers, covering attrition from retirements and the financial impact of hiring 100 new officers.
Potential future collective agreement wage increases, anticipated E-Comm levy hikes and minor inflation adjustments for some non-salary items are other factors driving the need for bigger budgets.
Wage settlements alone from ratified or arbitrated collective agreements continue to grow at a rate faster than inflation, according to the VPD report from 2023.
Rai’s earnings as deputy chief in 2024 reached $363,799, according to information released by the VPD under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. He stands to see an increase as chief, with Palmer’s earnings totalling $487,224 last year.
Details of Rai's contract were not released Thursday.
In his first major public event as chief, Rai will be present Friday for the VPD's annual awards ceremony at the Roundhouse Community Centre, where officers and citizens will be recognized for acts of bravery, arrests and preventing crime.
