The Hamilton Police Service has named Robin Abbott as its new deputy chief of police. Abbott, who has spent her entire 27-year policing career with Hamilton police, will take over the role on Sept. 27
HPS says Abbott will oversee support services as she takes on role in September
Jeffery Tram · CBC News
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The Hamilton Police Service has named veteran officer Robin Abbott as its new deputy chief, putting a 27-year member of the force in one of its top leadership positions.
Abbott, who has spent her entire policing career with the Hamilton Police Service, will become deputy chief on Sept. 27, the police services board announced in a Thursday news release.
Abbott succeeds Paul Hamilton, who retired as deputy chief in June before becoming the Niagara Parks police chief.
Abbott has most recently served as superintendent of Division 1 and as held operational, administrative and executive leadership positions during her career.
As deputy chief responsible for support, Abbott will oversee crisis response, traffic safety, emergency services and facilities.
"It's a lot of responsibility and I'm really excited to have the opportunity to help lead our organization into the future," Abbott told reporters at a news conference Thursday.
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When Abbott joined Hamilton police in 1999, she said becoming deputy chief was never something she expected would happen in her career.
"When I was younger, I just wanted to be a police officer," she said. "That was a goal of mine from the age of 14."
She said her focus throughout her career has been on doing the job in front of her well, an approach Chief Frank Bergen calls "be where your feet are."
"Thankfully that has led me to further leadership roles," Abbott said. "This is a pleasant surprise for me."
Police not always the best response: Abbott
Abbott identified homelessness, mental health concerns, the opioid crisis, and increasing youth violence as some of the challenges facing Hamilton.
She said part of tackling those challenges is finding ways to create efficiencies for front-line officers, allowing them to spend more time responding to calls where police are the appropriate service.
She said police have increasingly become the "default service provider" even when another organization may be better equipped to respond.
"We're responding to a lot of challenges where we're not the best resource to be the first response," she said.
Abbott said partnerships with community organizations will be important, pointing to existing co-response models with St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton as an example.
She said organizations can also play a role in tackling youth crime, saying they can provide them with supports that would deter them from entering the criminal justice system.
"It's about intervention, prevention before enforcement," she said.
Abbott said she will measure success in her first year by how well the service implements its next strategic plan and begins meeting goals identified by the community, police members, and community partners.
For Bergen, he says progress was made under former deputy chief, Paul Hamilton, highlighting the creation of a community advisory panel and the collection of race and identity based data, something he thinks has dramatically impacted "the accountability and transparency of our use-of-force reporting," and their approach to equity, diversity and inclusion.
He says the police force will continue to work on that progress. "We've done everything we can to make sure that we can have an underpinning of trust when we're dealing and interacting with our community," he said.
Focus on women in policing
Abbott has served as the command champion of the service's Women's Internal Support Network since it was created in 2020.
The group provides training and mentorship opportunities, with a particular focus on supporting women pursuing leadership roles.
Abbott said the service has set a goal of having women make up 30 per cent of its ranks, although there is no defined timeline for reaching that target.
"To be able to help drive that forward, is one of the goals that I intend to work on," she said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeffery is a reporter with CBC Hamilton. He previously worked as a reporter at CBC Saskatchewan in Regina, and was an associate producer at CBC Toronto. You can reach him at jeffery.tram@cbc.ca.
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