boyd came out of retirement to accept an appointment as interim police chief from march 1, 2005 to april 6, 2005. his appointment followed the police services board's controversial 2004 announcement that it would not renew fantino's contract at the end of his term, a decision which outraged many of toronto's more conservative city councilors. in his early media interviews, boyd stated that he hoped to bring a more collaborative and community-oriented style of leadership to the job than fantino did, particularly around controversial issues such as racial profiling. boyd was initially considered a front-runner for position of police chief after some praise from the board during his short time. on april 6, another former deputy chief, bill blair, was named fantino's permanent successor. insiders suggested that the vote was 4-2 in favour of blair. in contrast to fantino, there was little difference between boyd and blair, although it was widely believed that mayor david miller personally preferred boyd. case ootes and hugh locke, the two conservative members of the police services board, voted against boyd for that reason.