Five candidates in running to be Ottawa’s next top cop
Interim chief among applicants to replace Charles Bordeleau
One of a handful of people being interviewed by the Ottawa police board on Monday will become the city’s new police chief.
The board is scheduled to sit down for its first round of interviews with candidates for the vacant chief’s job. A second, and likely final, round of interviews is scheduled to take place one week from Monday, on Aug. 19.
Among the group of candidates are one woman, at least one visible minority, two retired police officers — one the former chief of an Ontario municipal service, the other an ex-deputy chief at another Ontario force — and the Ottawa service’s current interim police chief.
The group includes officers who have worked for the national police force and municipal ones. Three of the candidates have, at one time, worked at the Ottawa Police Service.
The Citizen reached out to four of the five candidates — three of them, citing respect for the ongoing process, declined to comment. One did not respond to a request to speak. Some of the candidates remain employed by police forces or private companies. As a result, the Citizen has decided not to name them at this time.
Police board chair Coun. Diane Deans also declined a request for an interview, saying that the process is confidential. The board received 19 applications for the position of chief, a list which was then whittled down to the five candidates to be interviewed on Monday.
Former chief Charles Bordeleau retired in May. The board — half of its members sworn in just last December with a new term of council — was tasked with choosing not just the new chief but also the service’s new top civilian, the chief administrative officer.
Together, the positions account for one half of the force’s senior-most command. The board hired a recruiting firm and held national searches for both positions with concurrent competitions running from June 24 to July 19.
The board held extensive consultation — a town hall, an online survey and targeted community groups for their feedback on issues and challenges facing the police service. From that consultation emerged several themes, among them: the need for a chief who can strengthen relationships with front-line officers, a chief who understands diversity and makes sure the force builds bridges, and a “visible and approachable” leader with “integrity and strength of character.”
There are some noticeable absences from the list of candidates being interviewed. Sen. Vern White, the one-time Ottawa police chief who left the service to be appointed a Conservative senator in 2012, didn’t apply for the job despite displaying rather public interest in returning to the city force.
Ottawa police Deputy Chief Uday Jaswal, once thought to be a top internal contender for the job, also did not apply. Jaswal remains embroiled in an investigation of Durham police’s top command, of which he was part when he served as deputy chief in that region from 2016 to 2018.
Acknowledging the distraction it would cause to not only the service but the community to lead the force during the ongoing investigation, Jaswal voluntarily gave up a scheduled assignment as interim chief this summer. It’s in that vein that he also didn’t submit an application to be chief.
Steve Bell, who is a candidate, has remained in the role of interim chief since Bordeleau retired and is expected to do so until at least September. syogaretnam@postmedia.com twitter.com/shaaminiwhy