Police chief responds to re-posting 'radical defund the police zealots' post, gathers support for budget

Police Services Board Chair Ali Chahbar was joined by Police Chief Thai Truong, along with representatives from various public institutions at a news conference on Jan. 31, 2024. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)

It was a rare gathering at London Police Service (LPS) headquarters Wednesday of the heads of the city’s largest public institutions, all throwing their support behind the police service’s draft budget.

The presidents and CEOs of both London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) and St. Joseph’s Health Care, along with the presidents of Fanshawe College and Western University, and the directors of Education for both the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) and The London District Catholic School Board (LDCSB) were all on hand.

They were called upon to speak in favour of the LPS’ $672 million budget ask for 2024, 17 per cent higher than last year, representing the largest budget in the force’s history, if approved.

Police Services Board Chair Ali Chahbar said the bigger budget is integral to keeping people safe.

“If you ask most Londoners, they probably won’t be able to recite specific data that the London police response times for non-emergency calls are some of the very worst in our province. They won’t be able to specifically tell you that response times range somewhere between seven hours to four days. But what you will hear is when they call the police they have to wait, and wait, and wait for hours and days on end sometime for someone to show,” said Chahbar.

In the meantime, Chief Thai Throung found himself responding to social media controversy that erupted Wednesday.

The London Police Association posted a statement on X in support of the police budget, praising some members of city council for “rejecting efforts from radical ‘Defund the Police’ zealots.” 

The police chief re-posted the statement, thanking the association for its support. 

But the use of the language in the statement drew criticism from some social media users. 

“There’s a lot of emotions and feelings that have been in this community and impacted by our membership and our officers, and the community,” explained Chief Truong.

“People want to be heard. But my response and my thanks was to the association, thanking them for supporting the budget,” he said.

The executive director of the police association said he stands behind the statement

“There were words used against police such as genocide and murderers,” said Rick Robson.

“And if that language is okay, I would be very well placed to say that that is a radical, zealot point of view. And I stand behind that,” he said.