Kash Heed

Kash Heed (born November 1955) is a Canadian politician and former police officer. Since 2022, Heed has been a member of Richmond City Council. He previously served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, representing the riding of Vancouver-Fraserview from 2009 to 2013. A member of the BC Liberal Party, from 2009 to 2010 he was the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General in the Campbell ministry.

Before entering politics, he served on the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), reaching the rank of superintendent. He then served as chief constable of the West Vancouver Police Department from 2007 to 2009, becoming the first Indo-Canadian police chief in Canada.

A resident of Richmond, British Columbia since 1965, Heed graduated from the B.C. Police Academy in 1979 and began his career as an officer with the VPD. As an inspector he was commander of District 3, which corresponds to the southeast quadrant of Vancouver; he was in charge of the south part of Vancouver after becoming superintendent. Other roles in his career with the VPD have included heading the drug squad and Indo-Canadian gang task force, as well as implementing the department's COMPSTAT information technology system.

In June 2007 he lost out to Deputy Chief Jim Chu for the position of Chief Constable of the VPD, but days later was appointed to that title in West Vancouver. He led the West Vancouver Police Department for 19 months before resigning on February 23, 2009. During his time as Chief Constable, Heed advocated the creation of a regional police force to fight gang crime.

He is a published author who also teaches criminology and criminal justice at two B.C. colleges.

On April 8, 2009, Heed announced he would run for the BC Liberal Party in the riding of Vancouver-Fraserview in that year's provincial election; he was called a star candidate for the party. During his campaign, Heed used photos of himself wearing a police uniform in his campaign materials; his main opponent, Gabriel Yiu of the New Democratic Party (NDP), suggested that was improper. Heed defeated Yiu by 748 votes to become the riding's member of the Legislative Assembly, and was appointed to the B.C. cabinet as Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General on June 10, 2009. His responsibilities under this portfolio included crime prevention, law enforcement, victim services, road safety and emergency preparedness.

Heed resigned his ministerial post on April 9, 2010 in response to an unspecified Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation regarding violations of the Elections Act involving his campaign office, becoming the third consecutive solicitor-general to step down in a 25-month period. The investigation revealed that his campaign team distributed unregistered brochures targeting the NDP, but special prosecutor Terry Robertson exonerated Heed of involvement, and he returned to cabinet on May 4, 2010. Less than 24 hours later, the special prosecutor himself resigned when it was discovered that the law firm he came from had made financial contributions to the election campaign of Heed's party, the Liberals. Heed once again stepped down pending a more detailed probe into the case.

The distribution of the unregistered brochures brought Heed's campaign above the spending limit; he admitted to exceeding the limit by $5,579, but denied knowing of it at the time. The court revised the overspent amount to $4,000, and Heed was fined $8,000 (twice the overspend), but was allowed to keep his seat in the legislature and cleared of criminal wrongdoing. He did not run for re-election in 2013.