Randy Patrick
Deputy Chief, Peel Regional Police, Retired
Law and Security Administration, Class of 1980
In 2005, inspired by a Law Enforcement Memorial Run in the United States, Deputy Chief Randy Patrick, then an Inspector, came up with the idea of having a National Peace Officers Memorial Run for Canadian Peace Officers killed in the line of duty.
The three-day, 460-kilometre relay run from Toronto to Ottawa, also called the Run to Remember, raises awareness about the Police and Peace Officers Memorial held on Parliament Hill every year on the last Sunday in September. The runners arrive on the Hill on the Saturday preceding the memorial service.
Twenty-four Peel Regional Police members took part in the first Run to Remember, and today upwards of 300 participants from Canada and other nations, including the United States and the United Kingdom, participate. The run has raised more than $500,000, with the money going toward trust funds established for the families of officers killed in the line of duty, donations to other memorial funds and community charitable initiatives in the name of a fallen officer.
Randy has also supported other fundraising initiatives during his 41-year career, through the Peel Regional Police, including United Way, Toys for Tots, Special Olympic Torch Run and Cops for Cancer, acting in various roles including Chair, Steering Committee Member, organizer and participant.
Randy was made a Member of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces by the Governor General in 2016 and received many other awards and commendations during his career. These include the Association of Black Law Enforcers (A.B.L.E) Community Award (2012), the Knights of Columbus Humanitarian Awards (2008), and, for an investigation into multi-jurisdictional jewelry store robberies, the Regional Municipality of Peel Police Services Board Award (2022). He was twice the Mississauga Real Estate Board “Police Officer of the Year” (1989, 2002), one for disarming a distraught male who had been threatening family members with a knife.
Over the years, Randy was also involved in many special projects, including as chair of the Peel Regional Police COVID-19 task force and executive lead for the joint pilot project with the Halton Regional Police Service for Canada’s first public safety wireless communications network for first responders.
His stellar career began when Randy applied to the Peel force on the advice of the former Chief of Police for Cardinal, Ont., where Randy grew up. Randy knew Chief Walter Kolodziechuk from two early encounters with the law — both as a witness to crime.
When he was about 12, Randy delivered newspapers and one day as he waited for his bundle of papers, he witnessed a stabbing.
“Two men stepped into the street from a garage in my neighbourhood and they got into a fight, and one stabbed the other,” he said. “And within a year of that event I was again delivering papers and a lumber truck went by me and the large mirror on the side hit a small girl who was riding her bike ahead of me in the head and killed her.”
When it came time to apply for jobs, Chief Kolodziechuk recommended Peel Regional Police because it was a very progressive and innovative force.
Randy remained with Peel through so much change, so much innovation, and though he has taken courses and received certificates from the Ontario Police College, Canadian Police College and Wilfrid Laurier and Dalhousie universities since his Algonquin College days, he credits the College with giving him the confidence he needed to do the job and the skills needed to succeed.
“The teachers were preparing us not just for a policing career but to get into policing, to get through those initial hurdles and give us the confidence to be able to do that,” he said. “They also stressed the importance of the smaller things and did different scenarios that you would see and could deal with once you became a police officer. They also stressed report writing and how important that was. That was a big part of my job.”
His interest in policing piqued by his chance encounters with police in his hometown of Cardinal, Randy built a career on the firm foundation of a college education.