Toby Hinton
Justice Institute of British Columbia

Ret. Sgt. Toby Hinton has a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Political Science from Simon Fraser University. He was a member of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) for 30 years, with over 24 years dedicated to Beat policing in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver (17 as a Constable – 8 as a Beat Sergeant). For the final 5 years of his career, Toby worked as a Sergeant in the Force Options Training Unit (FOTU) of the VPD, where he specialized in Control Tactics training. While working in the FOTU, Ret. Sgt. Hinton helped develop an academic partnership for use of force research with Dr. Garth Davies (SFU School of Criminology) and utilized Subject Behaviour Officer Response Reports (SBOR) to inform and help drive use of force training for the VPD.

Ret. Sgt. Hinton is one of the founders of Police Judo (www.policejudo.ca), the VPD Police Judo Club (1997 to present), Simon Fraser University Police Judo Club (2010-2020), and currently instructs at the Odd Squad Police Judo (2019 to present). He has presented and delivered training on control tactics to police across Canada, the United States, Switzerland, China and Taiwan. He has also presented on use of force issues at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference (IACP) and the International Law Enforcement Education and Training Association (ILEETA) conferences.

Ret. Sgt. Hinton directed the Canadian Police Association (CPA) documentary “Understanding Police Use of Force” (2018) and has directed and helped produce numerous other educational documentaries through his work with the Burnaby-based charity Odd Squad Productions.