“We’re guardians, not warriors” – Deputy Chief Crawford prepares to hang up his badge

August 28, 2020 · 0 Comments

Police are sometimes painted with the broad brush of having a “warrior mentality,” but that doesn’t reflect the experience of York Region Deputy Chief Andre Crawford.

Crawford, a long-time Aurora resident, is set to hang up his badge on September 29, 34 years to the day after first entering policing after a career in banking.

Over that time, he has seen myriad changes at the York Regional Police, but one thing has remained steadfast: his philosophy that police are here to be “guardians of the people.”

“We’re often viewed as warriors and policing has a long tradition of the warrior mentality,” says Crawford. “We’re guardians, we’re not warriors. We’re specifically looking after our community, especially here in York Region. It is not about the bad guy, it is about 99 per cent of the people who are working hard and doing their best. They are the ones we are here to serve, protect and look after.

“There is the misconception that we run around in our pretty cars, lights flashing, arresting people, when it is really about making sure people are safe and doing what we can to engage with people.”
Community engagement has been an important part of his long career in the force, especially fostering connections with young people. For him, engagement means building relationships and that is just what he set out to do when he looked at a career change more than three decades ago.

Crawford wasn’t one of those young boys who grew up with dreams of being a police officer. After graduating from university, he worked at the Royal Bank for six years before he began looking for something different.

A cousin working with the Toronto Police Service suggested a move to the uniform and Crawford decided to apply – just in time for Toronto to impose a hiring freeze in the middle of his application process.

Within months, however, opportunities cropped up in York Region, a place at the time was viewed as “all country” for the then 28-year-old Willowdale native.

“I liked the way my cousin sold policing to me: you were helping the community, you got to patrol around and it sounded like another team,” he says. “I was fortunate to join with York. I look back now and think, what if I got onto Toronto with 5,000 members? Where would I have ended up?

“Life is a strange thing. It points you in different directions and you take the opportunities that come to you. I ended up in York never imagining I would go up the ranks to Deputy Chief, but things happen and that is what it is all about.”

Before he rose up the ranks, Crawford was on the frontlines, assigned to the YRP’s sexual assault unit.

It is here where he experienced what he describes as his most rewarding experience on the force.

Assigned to a sexual assault case where the victim was a young woman, Crawford and his partner received a tip and, with that, they were able to break the case.

It is not the fact the perpetrator was arrested and served jail time that he looks back on, but the impact cracking the case had on the young woman.

“I am a big believer in victim advocacy because we’re doing it for the victims and, in the big criminal justice system of ours, a lot of times the victim gets forgotten and it is the bad guy [who] is in focus,” he says. “I always try to remember that the victim is the most important person in anything that happens. I will always remember when we got him… and I was able to tell her personally to her face that we got the guy. It gives me shivers just talking about it [remembering] the relief on her face and the tears welling up in her eyes. It is just the sense that something had been done and I will never forget that until the day I die. She was just so relieved.

“For me, that is what it is all about. That is the case I will remember forever not because we got the bad guy, but because we looked after the victim.”

Outside of policing, Andre Crawford is an active member of the community. Although he describes himself as “not overly religious,” church life has been a “big part” of his life as an Aurora resident.

An active member of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, he serves as both a eucharistic minister as well as a member of the Parish Council. He is also a long-time volunteer with the Aurora Film Circuit, reflecting his passion for film.

“I don’t live and breathe policing,” he says. “I like to do other things as well, so the Film Circuit is a nice outlet and a nice way to get involved.”

With little over a month left in his policing career, Crawford says he is looking forward to what the next chapter will bring. He is spending the next few weeks tying up loose ends and working with incoming deputies to make sure everyone is up to speed for a seamless transition.

When asked what advice he plans on giving to his successor, he says the most important thing is to “have an open mind and listen to what people say.”

“People have a voice and we especially in law enforcement and the police world, we can’t close our minds and think that we know it all and we know exactly how best to do things,” he says. “We need to listen to people. People have a voice, people have opinions. Their opinions can make us better. We should always strive to be better.”

By Brock Weir