Hamilton’s New Police Chief

Thursday January 28, 2010 

One of the biggest questions people have been asking me of late is ” Have you met the new chief yet?”

Seems barely a day goes by without a person asking me this, but it is a question born out of curiosity on what the man is like plus the communities interest on what kind of chief he will be. It is also a question people are asking well knowing the problems on our force and wondering if he will be addressing them or not.

Well I am happy to say that yes I have met the Chief, we had a brief chat and went over a few things of interest.

My first impressions are very favourable, he is coming into this city not knowing the history or general lay of the land, so it is a very quick learning process for him, it is absolutely imperative that EVERYONE lends a helping hand to make this transition as easy as possible.

One question I asked the chief is if he was going to be at our annual citizen of the year banquet, but he said that he had a neighbourhood meeting to attend that same night, which was great to hear that he was lending his ear to the community to hear its concerns and hopefully learn from it.

I can only wish and hope that the new chief will also do the same throughout the entire city and especially in the areas that have been either underserviced or ignored in the past.

Lord knows that service issues even in my own neighbourhood have been ignored in the past largely due to the arrogance of certain commanders, and we live right next door to the Mountain Station House!

Changes and promises in the past that never materialized from the Hamilton Police service can only be passed on to the new chief, it will be up to him to do the right thing and act on the issues.

Right now citizens are waiting with baited breath, fingers crossed and hoping ( some praying they tell me) that bringing in a new chief from the outside will forever end the ” Old Boys Club”

Living in a democracy it is absolutely imperative that the citizens of Hamilton have the utmost respect and belief in their public institutions, and our Police Service needs to be at the top of that list.

At this point it is not, and it needs to be brought back up again to the level of respect that it once had from its citizens.

Those people that cant deliver the services that are needed either need to be replaced or step aside, and new people brought in that can look beyond their own egos and remember that at the end of the day its the citizens that ultimately need to be reported to.

I have spoken with patrol officers all the way up the ladder to the senior commanders and all speak highly of the new chief and some are anxiously awaiting to see if he does what needs to be done.

Each and every day I get an enormous amount of requests from the citizens of this great city on many different matters and my answer to them is the same that I said to the new Chief, ” Tell me what you need, if I can help you I will get it done.”

Lets all make sure that it is very high on our priority list to help the new chief in any way that we can, what is done is done, it is time to move on, pack away your egos and childish behaviours and lets return the force to the level of respect that the citizens of this city demand that it be!

And bye the way the first thing I said to the chief as I extended my hand to him was ” Welcome to Hamilton!!”

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