Greg Blais, a Sault native now working as a police constable in the United Kingdom, has received a prestigious honour.
Blais, a Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary officer, was named the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Response Officer of the Year for 2025.
The annual award recognizes the most outstanding officer across the 43 police services in England and Wales.
“There are thousands of police officers and I was nominated and I won. I can't believe it. Honestly, I'm speechless about it. Out of all the officers nominated from England and Wales, I’m a guy from the Sault and I won,” Blais said in a recent phone interview with SooToday.
Blais received news of the national award in October.
The county of Hampshire is 60 miles southwest of London, while the island county of the Isle of Wight is 50 miles off Hampshire’s coast.
Blais, a constable for the past 11 years, has seen it all in his line of work.
“We have serious incidents, like serious assaults. I've been to those. I've been to murder scenes. I've been to serious car crashes. We go to a lot of mental health calls and suicides. It's a variety of different things. I do arrest quite a lot of people,” Blais said.
Regardless of his job’s serious nature, Blais enjoys his work as a police constable.
“I think it's a fascinating job. Every day is different. I enjoy helping the public and supporting victims. People need our help. It’s all about the community and I really enjoy it.”
Police work was a big career change for Blais.
Like most Canadians, he loved hockey.
A goaltender, the White Pines Collegiate graduate played for the Sault Ste. Marie North Stars, a former midget AAA hockey team, before playing National Collegiate Athletic Association hockey for the Suffolk University Rams in Boston.
Blais graduated from Suffolk with a degree in criminology but didn’t go straight into that field.
“I wanted to carry on playing hockey so I went overseas,” Blais said.
He played in Belgium, France, Norway and the U.K., his final stop being as a goaltender for the Cardiff Devils in Wales.
Blais eventually decided it was time for a new career path.
“I was 34. I got to the age where I needed another job. I got married here and had children and I always wanted to be a police officer.”
His criminology degree and dual Canadian and British citizenship opened the door for him to become a police officer in the UK.
“A lot of things are different here. Even driving is different because they drive on the left side of the road but it's easy to settle in. Everyone here is quite friendly,” Blais said.
He served as a special constable while still playing hockey before becoming a full constable with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary.
Now 45, Blais lives in Rookley, a village near the Isle of Wight’s main city of Newport.
“I like the culture here. There’s a lot of history. Just down from where I live there's an old castle. I'm only about an hour and a half away from London so I can go see Buckingham Palace. I'm close to a lot of things,” he said.
At the same time, Blais still has fond feelings for the Sault.
His parents and extended family still live here.
“I usually come back once a year in the summer but this time I think I'm going to try to come home for Christmas. I think at some stage, when I retire, I would love to come back.
"I miss the nature, the culture, I miss going to Greyhound games,” Blais said.
For now, he’s enjoying his work as a British cop.
“I love it. I think I'm quite lucky. I'm part of a team so it’s similar to being part of a hockey team. I enjoy trying to help the public and supporting the victims,” Blais said.
His professionalism and consistency has drawn words of praise from his superior officers.
“Greg always goes above and beyond expectations to consistently deliver exceptional service and models the standards the public deserve and his team aspire to,” said Inspector Oly Greenhowe of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary in an email.
“Having been an ice hockey player, Greg knows and demonstrates the meaning of teamwork in every aspect of his policing, whether it is supporting new officers or inspiring experienced officers, and always leads from the front.
"When I look at the duty sheet and see Greg Blais is on the shift, I know his team and the community are that little bit safer,” Greenhowe said.