Stephen Beckett

Stephen Beckett was a police officer with the Waterloo Regional Police Service for 35 years from 1980 until 2015. During his career he was assigned to general patrol, major traffic investigations and enforcement, drug enforcement, homicide, internal affairs, police officer training, quality insurance and audits, administrative services, executive officer, media officer, research and planning, and corporate services. During this time, he was also relied on as a hostage negotiator, major incident commander, and public order unit commander. From 2005-2007 he was assigned to the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services conducting police service inspections; advising boards, chiefs, and associations on policing issues; and advising on policing standards manual guideline application to policy and procedure development.

In 2011 Stephen Beckett attained the rank of Deputy Chief of Systems and Innovation and was responsible for the administration of more than 1100 members, overseeing IT and HR systems, finance, infrastructure and resource management, complaints and discipline, asset management, community services, courts administration, quality assurance and audits, research and planning, training, and communications and dispatch.

During his tenure with the Waterloo Regional Police Service, he participated in and had oversight of the development of strategic business plans, annual reports and compliance with Ministry of Community safety and Correctional Services Adequacy Standards.  He also chaired and participated on Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP), Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP), Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) committees on information and communications technology and the CACP Committee on Human Resources and Learning.

From 2015 to 2019, Mr. Beckett took on the role of Assistant Deputy Minister for the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services assigned to the Public Safety and Public Safety Training Divisions.

This position was responsible for oversight of all Police Services Boards; Police Chiefs; First Nations Police Services; and Special Constable Services in the Province of Ontario, in terms of compliance with Police Services Act and its regulations. This position also required oversight and management of the Police Quality Assurance Unit (Advisory and Inspections of police services); the Ontario Police College; Police Grants and Programs administration; the Private Investigations and Security Guards Directorate; the Ontario Center of Forensic Science, Major Case Management Unit, First Nations Policing Unit and administrative oversight of the Criminal Intelligence Service of Ontario.

As Assistant Deputy Minister he chaired the Future of Policing Advisory Committee (FPAC) which helped form the foundation of the development of the Comprehensive Police Services Act R.S.O. 2019. He also participated in, and chaired, several government/stakeholder committees on the development and effects of the Collection of Identifying Information in Certain Circumstances Regulation O. Reg. 58/16; the Cannabis Licence Act 2018; the Special Investigations Unit Act 2019; the Provincial Animal Welfare Act S.O. 2019; And Ontario’s response to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Mr. Beckett has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Justice Studies from the University of Guelph, and an Honours Diploma in Police Foundations Leadership from Humber College. He also graduated from the Police Leadership Program at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, the International Pearls in Policing Program in the Netherlands and Singapore and completed several business courses from Wilfrid Laurier University including Organizational Behaviour, Marketing, Business Law, and Macroeconomics.