Const. Matthew Wood never thought he’d end up teaching at Seneca, but then the new School of Public Safety professor didn’t think he’d be a police officer either.

“Before I decided to get into policing, I was set on joining the army,” he said.

Mr. Wood joined the Canadian Army Reserve part time through a high school co-op program when he was 17. Back then, his goal was to attend the Royal Military College of Canada.

But after realizing full-time soldiers don’t generally work in Toronto, and he’d have to move away and leave his friends and family behind, Mr. Wood decided to pivot and explore a career in policing.

“Thankfully, the structure of the army reserve gave me the chance to do both at the same time,” he said.

Mr. Wood enrolled in the Police Foundations diploma program at Seneca while serving as a sergeant with the Queen’s York Rangers. In 2006, at age 21, he withdrew from Seneca and deployed to Afghanistan for six months as a member of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

In what was one of the largest ground combat operations in the history of NATO, Mr. Wood’s battle group defeated an insurgent force in the area surrounding Kandahar City. They were awarded the Commander-in-Chief Unit Commendation for their heroic efforts amid “fierce enemy resistance and extremely difficult terrain.”

“I volunteered to go overseas and ended up being part of a five-person psychological operations team,” he said. “Looking back, I had the opportunity to experience something that few have.”

One of Mr. Wood’s stories from the mission was told in Mindful of Our Ancient Valour: The Queen’s York Ranger on Operations, from 1756 to Present. After returning to Canada in 2007, he became an instructor with the army’s battle school and completed his diploma at Seneca.

While Mr. Wood was eager to start his policing career after graduation, the police service would not be ready for him for another six years. In the meantime, he worked in the private sector and continued to serve the army.

“Luckily, once I was hired by Toronto Police Service, my training at the Ontario Police College was a breeze thanks to the time I spent at Seneca,” he said.

But Mr. Wood soon felt he needed to do more to advance his career. With most army career courses taking several weeks to complete, he found the task “virtually impossible” to co-ordinate with his full-time work.

“My career stalled,” he said. “So, I ended up going back to school.”

Mr. Wood went on to complete a bachelor of applied arts in justice studies through a Seneca diploma-to-degree pathway with the University of Guelph-Humber and a master’s degree in public policy, administration and law from York University.

Along with his academic accomplishments, he has gained eight years’ experience as a police officer, having worked in priority (911) response, community response, criminal investigations, crime analysis and now operational planning.

In 2019, Mr. Wood retired from the military after more than 17 years of service.

Throughout his career, Mr. Wood has stayed connected with Seneca, mainly through his work with Seneca Alumni. In January 2022, he joined the School of Public Safety as a part-time professor.

“I never imagined I’d be teaching, let alone that my first class would be on Zoom in the middle of a pandemic,” he said. “I feel like I haven’t had a chance to experience teaching to the fullest, but I’m looking forward to the adventure.”

In his spare time, Mr. Wood is working on a book about advocating for cultural change in policing.

“Although the police is structured in a para-military fashion, the difference in the way police leaders are developed compared to military leaders is concerning,” he said. “After writing about it for my master’s thesis, I wanted to draw more attention to the topic.”

Mr. Wood says the biggest difference between military and police training is the balance of training and application. In the military, he says, 99 per cent of what soldiers do is training and one per cent is real-world application.

“In policing, it’s the opposite,” he said.

With what he calls a “diversity of experience,” Mr. Wood says he is able analyze problems from a different perspective.

“Having worked in different jobs with the army and in the private sector has given me a unique perspective to bring to policing and to teaching,” he said. “That was one of my favourite things about the army — I felt like I was always learning. I owe everything I have today to the army and the phenomenal people I met along the way.”