The countdown is on to find a new police chief in the Forest City as Chief John Pare prepares to retire in June.
The posting for the top cop position is now up, and members of the London Police Services Board say they’re looking for someone with strong leadership qualities, as well as several years of experience within an urban environment.
London Police Service Board co-chair Susan Toth says they are also looking for someone who will continue to do lots of community building.
Toth says the position was initially open to senior officer ranks, but the criteria has now been expanded.
“Every service can make that decision,” Toth said. “So initially it was just deputy chiefs, but we have expanded it beyond that so at this point it can be superintendents it can be inspectors and certainly we may get applicants from other services- not just municipal but OPP, RCMP I mean at this point hopefully we will get lots of qualified candidates and our hardest job will be narrowing it down to one.”
That expanded criteria is raising concerns for the London Abused Women’s Centre’s executive director Megan Walker. The organization would like to see an internal candidate hired because of the strong relationships that have been developed with the current members of the force.
“It’s really important to me because we have worked really hard over a long period of time to develop this incredible relationship with London Police Service where we can both be honest and open and understanding with eachother’s perspectives where the police department has become a place where we can go and there will be an open mind to those suggestions,” Walker said.
Walker spoke at Wednesday’s Police Services Board meeting, going on the record with her comments, stressing the importance of hiring someone who is already immersed in the community.
“It’s just made a huge difference in the lives of women and children and I don’t know if an outside hire would have that potential to do those things because I think it’s really about relationships, and if you don’t have a relationship with that person that’s hired you’re going all the way back to where we were 15 years ago just starting out,” Walker says.
London Police Association Executive Director Rick Robson says there is great internal talent.
“We have confidence in our internal candidates that we would be confident if one of the deputy chiefs the current deputy chiefs or whoever the board selects as the new chiefs we’re confident we have competent members who could fill that role,” Robson says.
Robson tells CTV London there are challenges with hiring an external candidate.
“We’re in the middle of a collective bargaining process,” Robson says. If someone was brought in externally they wouldn’t have that corporate knowledge, they wouldn’t have an understanding of where that process was. Depending on the candidate I’m unsure of whether they would want to put their signature on that process, would it halt that process while they reviewed it while they put their signature on it or would they allow it to flow as if it was already in progress.”
Toth says competition is good for the city.
“I think it would be irresponsible of us not to make it a competitive process. I think we would probably get just as much criticism if we said we’re not even going to bother having a competition," said Toth. "Healthy competition is good. I think we’re in an excellent position because absolutely we have great talent within our own ranks but it’s always good to see what’s out there and be as transparent in that process as possible and make sure that when we pick the chief that it’s the perfect person for the job as much as they can be."
