'What kind of chief': Police commission searching for Edmonton's top cop

Calgary Herald

02-06-2025

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'It's a very senior leadership position, not an easy one, running a very complex organization with very complex responsibilities, and it's going to take somebody who truly understands that, but has the right temperament to connect, connect out and collaborate with the rest of the city,' he said.
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Post-COVID, post McFee
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Edmonton's been through some tough years, and it's felt at the policing level, Henderson said.
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When former chief Dale McFee was hired after the exit of Chief Rod Knecht, Henderson was a city councillor, the COVID pandemic and the 'defund' movement were unknowns.
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'No one ever thought we were going to go through something like that. You know, the turmoil that was fired up about American police forces with George Floyd's death hadn't happened. It was a very different space for policing. I think both of those things upset the status quo in policing in ways I think we're still just beginning to understand,' Henderson said.
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'It was a very different world back then and the challenges that he had to face in the service were very hard to anticipate.'
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The incoming chief will have their hands full, naturally. Like cities everywhere, Edmonton's a different place now, with different expectations in a world still raw with COVID recovery and what poverty and addiction issues.
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'All those kind of things have got a lot of people out there hurting. That's creating worry for everybody,' Henderson said.
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'It's a different world and and where we go next in terms of making people feel confident again and safety in the city is, I think, an ongoing challenge.'
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All that will take different solutions — and the right person at the right time.
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'Back when Dale was hired, I think there was a feeling that things needed to shift and change a bit at that point, is my memory, so they were looking for someone who is going to come in and bring some real creativity and be a change agent. I'm not sure. I think what we heard from people this time was that although they certainly want to see progress continue, they want to see continued movement forward, that this is not as a time for radical (change) in what we were doing and where we're going with the chief,' Henderson said.
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'It's about continued, steady improvement.'
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Those surveyed had real concern for the well-being of the service and its members, Henderson said.
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'We also heard an awful lot from people externally that they wanted to make sure that we were taking care of the folks we had,' Henderson said.
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While concerns remain about transit safety, the city's crime stats are showing trending in the right direction in terms of it being a safer city, he said.
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The experiment has been successful, Henderson said.
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'I think the two of them are working really well together…That's part of what they committed to going into it, and I think they have a lot of respect for each other. It's been really interesting, because they both bring different strengths,' he said.
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'We've heard nothing but positives about how that's going.'
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Timing
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The job posting is now up, and the commission hopes to have a recommendation for the city's new top cop within four months, ideally the last council meeting prior to the October election, but the search could go into November.
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'We want to get it right,' said Henerson.
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'It was a really good listening exercise for us. Hopefully people will see what they all had to say reflected in the chief that we're now going to ask for,' he said.
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