News Dispatches
Retired Chief Barry Vincent King passes away at the age of 82

Aug. 7, 2024, Guelph, Ont. – It is with heavy hearts that the family of retired Police Chief Barry Vincent King of the Sault Ste. Marie Police and Brockville Police Services announced his passing on Aug. 3 after a battle with cancer. King was 82 years old. He leaves behind his beloved wife, Pat, after 61 years of marriage.

King was a Lance Corporal – Military Police in the Canadian Armed Forces from 1959 to 1964. He spent 46 years as a police officer, with 20 as a police chief. King began his policing career with the Ontario Provincial Police, from 1964 to 1969. He then became a member of the Mississauga Police Force and was one of the founding members of the Peel Regional Police Service, working there from 1969 to 1987.

Some highlights of his time at PRP included leading negotiations in the first-ever hijacked plane in Canada in 1971, leading the investigation into the high-profile death of Christine Demeter in 1973, leading the operations in the development of the now former Peel Headquarters (22 Division), and leading the evacuation of 250,000 citizens during the Mississauga train derailment in 1979.

King eventually left PRP as a staff superintendent to become the police chief in Sault Ste Marie. There he was chief from 1987 to 1995 when he retired for the first time. He later became the police chief in Brockville, working in that community from 1995 to 2007. During his time with Brockville Police, he was the chair or co-chair on several high-level committees, including the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, Safe Communities, Integrated Community Policing, Community Capacity Building, and Advanced Technology Integration and was an executive on both the OACP and CACP. King was proud to be among the first Canadians to be accepted to the FBI National Academy where he graduated in 1982.

King continued to lead the Safe Communities portfolio after his second retirement from Brockville and it was not until 2015 that he officially pulled back from all law enforcement activities.

“Policing was truly in his blood, and he loved every minute of it, helping people, as he was always thinking of others right to the end,” King’s family shared after his passing.