TIMMINS - The city's top cop is looking at long-term, big-picture solutions involving all levels of government.
At the Timmins’ Chamber Leader Breakfast on Dec. 3, Timmins Police Chief Sydney Lecky spoke about what larger issues need to be addressed to help police do their jobs and how the municipal service is recruiting future leaders.
“Hopefully, your next police chief will be found locally,” said Lecky, who was sworn in as chief earlier this year. Lecky comes to Timmins via the Northwest Territories, where he was with the RCMP overseeing 23 detachments.
The Timmins Police Service has been actively recruiting, focusing on northern communities, women, and diverse communities, he said.
“We’ve got some really great young women that have joined, so I’m not worried about what’s coming up,” said Lecky.
He said there is a gap when hiring in higher-up positions for women and diverse communities, but closing that gap is a long-term goal.
He points to hiring practices that limit what positions can be filled from outside the existing Timmins Police complement and how, as more women, in particular, join the service, that can be addressed in hiring and promotions in the future.
Within Timmins Police Service, there are only two policing positions that can be hired from outside the organization — the chief and the deputy chief. Other positions are promoted from within the existing staff.
The audience of business owners and chamber members expressed concerns about drug issues and enforcement, some of which Lecky said can be addressed by the recruitment and retention work being done.
He also talked the issues around bail reform and administration of justice charges, like failure to appear or breaching of conditions, need to be in place for things to change in more significant ways.
He spoke about reforms to the bail system and what can be done to change how the bail system works with repeat offenders.
“It’s really with our elected officials, when you get an opportunity to speak to it, that’s when you need to speak to it,” he said. “Until we have that change, it’s like running on a treadmill, and you’re going nowhere.”
During the presentation, Lecky pointed to tracking convictions for things like breach of conditions for release and how proving a pattern of behaviour can be helpful for police to keep repeat offenders off the streets.
He said that the bigger societal issues around homelessness and drug use must also be addressed for change to happen.
“You can throw numbers at it all day, but you’re not getting the actual outcome and the change that needs to happen in the judicial system,” he said.
