Chief departing without regrets
Jeff McGuire retires at the end of next week
Niagara Regional Police Chief Jeff McGuire donned his first uniform when he was 18 years old.
Friday, July 14, for the first time in 40 years, he will officially be a civilian again.
“The biggest part I will miss will be the people,” said McGuire, 58. “There are so many hardworking, committed, integrity-driven, energetic people in policing across the country and the province, and certainly within the NRPS.
“They just want to do the right thing and have a little fun every day, as you have heard me say many times.
“I won’t miss some of the issues and challenges and political wrangling — but that’s part of the job. I signed on for that, and I don’t regret it at all.
“My hashtag is NotDoneYet. If something else comes along, I will entertain it. It’s a good time to make an opening in the organization for others to move forward. I think we are in pretty good shape. We came to an agreement with the board. It’s all good.
“I’m healthy and young enough that if other opportunities come my way, I will take them. If they don’t, I have my family, I have my motorcycle and I have my cottage.”
McGuire’s retirement means two of the top three senior positions at Niagara Regional Police have turned over in the past six months.
The service installs Bill Fordy as a new deputy chief at headquarters in Niagara Falls Wednesday. He replaces Joe Matthews, who retired as a deputy chief at the end of January. The other deputy, Bryan MacCulloch, has been in his position since 2013 and has been a member for more than 30 years.
In the fall, Niagara’s police services board approved its budget for 2017, but almost all the discussions took place behind closed doors.
McGuire wrote a letter to the board in September asking it to hold as much of the budget deliberations in public as possible, so residents could understand any tradeoffs that had to be made in the interest of affordability. That request was turned down.
“I have nothing bad to say about anybody,” McGuire said. “The board has a role to play in this as does the chief and the command. So do the citizens. We all have pieces to play.
“Anytime you have an oversight body, there are going to be times you disagree and face challenges. My role as the chief was to work through those and represent the service, look at fiscal responsibility, and never lose sight of the fact our mandated responsibility is to make our community safer for everyone.
“When you get to this level, it is like running a business. You are delivering policing. I stood up for what I thought was right every single time. I would do that every single time again.
“We did it in a professional, respectful manner. There are always avenues you can take if things don’t work the right way, and you need to appeal something. I am satisfied the command, and I took the high road and looked at nothing other than to provide a safe community every time.”
Matthews worked with McGuire during his tenure. He said McGuire called to give him a heads-up the night before he made the announcement of his retirement public.
“I’m happy for him personally,” Matthews said. “It’s a big step for him. I am sure it was a difficult decision.
“I am a little disappointed in the way his relationship with the board played out. There were some difficulties over the last little while.
“I won’t speak for him, but what I will say is that this board brought political ideology to the table more than any other board in which I was involved. It added to the conflict.”
McGuire took the job as Niagara’s eighth chief of police in 2012 after 34 years with the Toronto Police Service. He was acting deputy chief when he left for Niagara after also having led Toronto’s homicide squad and its downtown’s 51 Division, known as one of the most challenging precinct in the city.
While Niagara’s police chief, he was the president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police in 2015-16. In the role, he was front in centre as the province wrestled with, and eventually rewrote, legislation regarding the controversial practice of street checks or carding.
McGuire said if there has been one constant over a career in policing it has been change.
“Every organization needs to be ready for change,” he said. It’s continuous. There have been waves of change throughout my career.
“When I joined the police service, we didn’t have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada. The justice system was terrified and wondered how we were going to keep the communities safe.”
McGuire said he would likely move back the Halton area with his wife to be close to his daughters and grandson and closer to the cottage in the Peterborough area.
“I will probably move on,” he said. “It would strictly be a family decision. We love it here, and if there is other work for me here in Niagara, we will stay, but if not, there is no real reason for us to drive those extra miles to see them when we could live in the same neighbourhood.”
His main regret is the stalled project to build a new police station in St. Catharines.
The new station was originally supposed to be constructed simultaneously with the new NRP headquarters in Niagara Falls, which opened in the fall of 2016.
This past fall, the police board learned the new station in St. Catharines was tracking at about $23 million, more than $5 million over the $18.2-million budget allotment. The board sent the senior management back to the drawing board.
“When I was interviewed for the job, the board wanted to know how I was going to make sure the St. Catharines police station was built,” he said. “Five years later, we have chain-linked fence around a dirt field.
“We are still working very hard on it, but it is something that should have been done. I’m not pointing fingers or blaming anybody. There are a lot of moving parts.
“That facility should have been built for the people of St. Catharines and Thorold and the men and women that work there a long time ago. I truly expected it to be finished long before I left.”
Matthews said McGuire leaves a lasting legacy on the Niagara Regional Police Service.
“One is internal,” Matthews said. “The respect and admiration he has for front-line police officers shone through.
“He believes the front-line is the face of what we do out there every day, and he improved a lot for our front line officers during his tenure.
“Externally, he is a communityminded individual. As a leader, he demonstrated openness and transparency. He invited diversity. That’s important when you are the head of an organization. It sends an example.
“I think he was a tremendous chief, and I don’t think he is done.
“He still has a lot of gas in his tank. I think he will land in some role. I don’t know if it will be directly related to policing. It may be some other type of public service, but he has a lot to offer.”