McGuire back on the beat for OACP
The man who was once Niagara’s top cop is back on the beat.
Jeff McGuire, the retired chief of Niagara Regional Police, has been appointed executive director of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.
In a Monday news release, the OACP said McGuire will continue the association’s “strategic direction,” “to meet the changing demands of policing a modernized society.”
“Jeff brings significant leadership, vision and policing experience to the position,” said OACP president Chief Bryan Larking in the release.
McGuire served as NRP chief from 2012 until summer 2017, when Niagara’s police services board, led by Niagara Falls regional Coun. Bob Gale, paid the chief to retire three years before his contract was up.
The board paid gave McGuire a $900,000-plus retirement package — which included cash payments totalling $870,000 — and hired Bryan MacCulloch, one of McGuire’s deputy chiefs, to lead the service.
As a result, Niagara taxpayers paid for the salaries of two police chiefs in 2017. The buyout also contributed to NRP cost overruns which resulted in a $7-million deficit. The service raided its reserve funds to pay most of the deficit and asked Niagara Region to cover the remaining $2.4 million.
McGuire has said he did not intend to retire but the police board — determined to hire a chief of its own — made him a very good offer.
“I am both honoured and humbled to have the opportunity in my new role as the executive director to advocate on behalf of the OACP membership and continue to uphold the vision of the OACP,” McGuire said in the association release.
McGuire starts his new job June 4.