Saskatoon got ‘best police chief’ in the province, P.A. mayor says
Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne harbours mixed feelings about his city’s police chief accepting the same position in Saskatoon.
Troy Cooper was introduced Wednesday at Saskatoon City Hall as the man who will replace Clive Weighill, who led the Saskatoon police force for 11 years.
“All I can say to Saskatoon is they hired the best police chief in the province of Saskatchewan,” Dionne said in a phone interview after the announcement. “And unfortunately, it was from the city of Prince Albert.”
Dionne confirmed he served as one of Cooper’s references for the job and called him a “community leader.”
Cooper, 52, brings three decades of experience in policing, including six years as police chief in Prince Albert. He starts his five-year contract in Saskatoon on Feb. 28.
Cooper confirmed he is a Metis from the northern Saskatchewan town of Big River, but downplayed his Indigenous background.
“I think when you look at me, you can see I’ve gone through life as a Caucasian male, so the status is something I rarely talk about publicly,” Cooper told reporters.
Cooper said working for Prince Albert police prompted him to connect with Indigenous peoples.
Dionne said Cooper tried to address Prince Albert’s high crime rate, which he said is driven by disadvantaged Indigenous residents and people from other northern Saskatchewan communities.
“(Cooper) realized where our problem was coming from,” Dionne said. “Instead of just putting his hands up, he engaged with (the Indigenous community).”
Cooper offered a nuanced opinion on street checks, also known as carding. Weighill strongly backed street checks, despite controversy, and Cooper acknowledged they are “necessary.”
“I don’t think anyone suggests that police shouldn’t talk to suspicious people or record information about suspicious people,” Cooper said. “They think police shouldn’t record unnecessary data and they think police shouldn’t enforce that in some prejudiced way.”
Cooper said he believes in strong policy on street checks and noted the Saskatchewan Police Commission is developing a framework for such a policy.
Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark, who attended Wednesday’s announcement, came out strongly against street checks during his 2016 election campaign.
“He rose to the top of a great list of candidates,” Clark told reporters of Cooper.
Little else about the process for hiring the new police chief was revealed, including the number of candidates who applied. Clark said the board wanted to protect the privacy of those who applied and declined to comment further.
Darlene Brander, the chair of the board of police commissioners, who introduced Cooper, told reporters fewer than 300 candidates applied. Brander confirmed candidates from inside the Saskatoon Police Service and from across Canada applied for the position.