Police board hosts meet-the-chief session

Cobourg Police Chief Chris Leather. Photo taken and provided by Dan Jones Northumberland 89.7 FM

By Cecilia Nasmith

The Cobourg Police Services Board was at the Victoria Hall Citizens Forum Thursday morning to introduce the new Chief of Police, Chris Leather.

Board chair Adam Bureau began by sharing a few of the board's accomplishments this term – including having to find a new chief and a new deputy chief.

When Chief Paul VandeGraaf announced in December that he would retire, Bureau said, “The board started working diligently on going over the right process, how to do that, how to move forward, and we picked a committee.”

This committee included Board Vice-Chair Sean Graham and Cobourg Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty, both of whom were present.

It was a six-month process that Bureau characterized as both collaborative and rigourous, focusing on finding the right person for this community.

They receive 25 applications, picking out the six strongest. He said that Leather's application was “by far the best one we found.”

Leather's 36-year policing career began in 1990 with his 15 years with York Regional Police. He joined the RCMP thereafter, serving from Vancouver to Halifax – and in national headquarters in Ottawa.

He told the group in the Citizens Forum that he was “deeply honoured and humbled to have been selected as Chief of Police for the Cobourg Police Service. Throughout this process, I was impressed b the board's commitment to effective governance, accountability and ensuring the services remains responsive to the needs of this community.”

He added that he also looks forward to working alongside the dedicated members of the Cobourg Police Service, who work every day to serve the community with professionalism, courage and commitment.

To the people of Cobourg, “I want you to know how excited I am to become part of this community.” With parents who retired to the town, he added, he has already been connected with it for 20 years. Now he looks forward to buying a house in Cobourg and becoming a full-time resident.

“Policing today is about more than responding to the calls for service. It's also about building trust, fostering partnerships, ensuring accountabiltiy and creating a safe environment where people can live and work and raise their families,” he said.

Priorities will include safety in public spaces and working closely with strategic partnerships to address “the underlying causes that bring vulnerable people into crisis.”

Just four days into the job, Leather declined to offer specifics, though he expects to be making a series of announcements in the future.