Top 40 Under-40 global recognition for Waterloo police officer Eric Boynton

October 4, 2021

While reviewing the list of applicants interested in leading Waterloo Regional Police Service’s (WRPS) new Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Unit, Inspector Jamie Sheridan was elated to see Staff Sergeant Eric Boynton’s name.

Since joining the organization in 2012, he has been at the forefront of promoting an inclusive and equitable workplace while building and strengthening relations with diverse groups in the community.

“When Eric presented his ideas, I was extremely impressed,” recalled Sheridan who is the Service’s Executive Officer. “Needless to say, it was an easy decision.”

Taking on the challenging task of developing and implementing the new EDI Strategic Plan, Boynton’s exceptional leadership skills also caught the attention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) which recognized him as one of the 2021 Top 40 Under-40 law enforcement professionals.

The global award recognizes sworn and civilian employees who are motivated to lead their agencies into the future and who encourage their colleagues to grow professionally and personally while striving to provide efficient services to help make communities safer and more inclusive.

Making the esteemed list, said Boynton, is a significant achievement.

“There has not been much representation from the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous & Other People of Colour) community in Canada when you look at the selections over the years,” he said. “My hope is that my recognition will inspire other Black law enforcement officers in this country. When they put in the work in their communities to effect change, this is what can happen.”

Sheridan nominated Boynton for the notable honour.

“I nominated Eric based on what I knew of him without reading his curriculum vitae,” he said. “When I submitted the form to the IACP, Eric was required to provide his resume. When I read that, I was stunned. His level of education, world travel, military service and volunteer work are far beyond anything I have seen from anyone, including myself. When I started doing some self-reflecting, I realized I was nowhere near his level in any of those areas at that age and probably never will be. He is simply an exceptional person. He’s highly intelligent, highly engaging and exceptionally respectful to every member of the Service and the public he interacts with.”

Since the awards program started five years ago, 24 Canadian law enforcement members (this year included) have been honoured.

Boynton is the first Black Canadian and second WRPS member to be recognized after Detective Constable David Chen in 2016.

Policing runs in his family.

Boynton’s mother, Candace Paul and her husband, Chas Zekeres are Toronto Police officers while his father, Dave Boynton, is a retired Toronto cop.

“My mom took me to some police events in the community and I saw how people looked up to her,” he said. “She also told me stories about some of the positive things she did and the people she helped. I thought that was the kind of career I wanted to pursue and I did everything I could while growing up to prepare for this journey.”

After finishing high school at Huron Heights Secondary, Boynton completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Waterloo.

Though he applied to a few Ontario Police Services, Waterloo was the first to recruit him.

“That’s really where I want to be,” he said. “I didn’t apply to Toronto because I wanted to branch out and do my own thing without following the footsteps of my parents with Toronto Police.”

Prior to becoming a police officer, Boynton was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve for eight years.

S/Sgt. Eric Boynton (Photo contributed)

He said the time spent in the military helped prepare him for law enforcement.

“It taught me the importance of teamwork and discipline,” said Boynton who won three medals in powerlifting at the 2019 World Police & Fire Games in Chengdu, China. “I learnt that nothing that’s worth doing comes easy and, at times, you have to be tenacious.”

While pursuing his Master of Peace and Conflict Studies, Boynton spent a month in Israel and Palestine in 2015 attempting to gain a better understanding of the conflict dynamics in the region.

“After talking to people on both sides, I realized that conflict is very complicated,” he said. “I was struck by how wonderful the people from each side are and that they both want the same thing even though they have different thoughts as to how to get to the end zone. I was amazed by how similar they are in their values and the things they want for their own communities.”

With an insatiable appetite for learning, Boynton is in the process of finishing a PhD. dissertation focused on diversity in police recruitment in Ontario.

A brief exchange with a retired WRPS member persuaded him to enroll in the Doctor of Social Sciences hybrid program at Royal Roads University in British Columbia.

“While he was shuttling me to get my car that was being fixed, he said, ‘You work in Recruitment, I have a question for you and I need for you to tell me the truth’,” recounted Boynton who expects to complete his PhD by the end of the year. “His question was ‘Are you hiring White guys anymore?’ That made me think I had to figure out why people think these very negative things about diversity-focussed recruitment. As a Recruitment officer, I just saw this as an opportunity to do better outreach. I decided to start a program where I got to interview a number of officers from different police services in Ontario with different demographic backgrounds and policing experiences.

“It’s fine if Chief James Ramer (Toronto) or Chief Bryan Larkin (Waterloo) say we want to hire more diverse officers. All that matters in the end is what the frontline person thinks because they are the ones making those ground level decisions. My work is centred on what police officers think about the topic and being able to share those findings with police services.”

In addition to Recruiting, Boynton also served in patrol and criminal intelligence before being promoted to Sergeant in 2019 and becoming a supervisor in the Training & Education Unit. He was elevated to Staff Sergeant earlier this year, becoming the first Black officer to achieve the rank in the Service’s 48-year history.

Of the nearly 800 uniformed officers, about 15 are Black, including one female.