Winnipeg Police Board has made pick for new police chief, but won’t say who it is yet
The Winnipeg Police Board has decided who it thinks should be the next chief of the city’s police service, but Winnipeggers will have to wait a little longer to find out who it is.
Board chair Markus Chambers told reporters Friday that the selection committee plans to make an announcement before the end of the year.
“The decision has been made, and it’s just the process that’s undertaken right now to confirm the decision that’s been made,” the St. Norbert-Seine River city councillor said.
City council must vote on the board’s choice for police chief.
The board will be ready to make its announcement “in the next week or so,” Chambers said — possibly by next week’s council meeting. If not, it will call a special meeting to confirm the appointment before the end of the year, he said.
The city has been looking for a replacement for Danny Smyth, who became chief of the Winnipeg Police Service in 2016 and resigned this past September. He had served as a Winnipeg police officer for more than 38 years, and after seven years in the role, was one of the longest-serving police chiefs in Canada at the time of his retirement.
The new chief will have a host of challenges to deal with, including officer burnout due to rising calls for service, tightening budgets and changing views on the role of police in responding to mental health and addictions issues.
Chambers said the selection committee, consisting of members of the police board, took those challenges into consideration when developing criteria for its search.
“People are looking for transformational change, and looking for a leader that works both well internally and externally,” he said.
On Friday, acting police chief Art Stannard told reporters he had asked for 72 officers in the upcoming city budget, a draft of which will be presented next Wednesday, although he did not expect to get that many.
“I made it known to city officials and made it known to the police board that we need more cars. We put it in our budget … so I’m hoping that Wednesday brings some good news,” Stannard said.
Earlier this fall, he told reporters calls for service in August reached a record high of 440 calls waiting in the queue. In September, Stannard said the service needed another 78 officers.
Call volumes have since dropped to between 150 and 200, Stannard said following a meeting of the Winnipeg Police Board, which he called a “manageable” number. Part of that decrease in call volume can be attributed to the change in seasons, he said.
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