New police chief sworn in

J.P. Levesque is officially the city’s new chief of police

Levesque, who served as the Thunder Bay Police Service deputy chief since 2009, was sworn in as the force’s chief at a special meeting of the police board Wednesday morning. Ontario Justice Dino Di Giuseppe swore in Levesque in front of a packed crowd of police officers, city councilors, friends and family.

Levesque, from Thunder Bay, has 24 years of experience on the force. During that time he worked in the criminal and drug investigation, training, incident command and administration departments.

After an eight month search for a new chief, Levesque took over for outgoing chief Bob Herman, who retired on July 7 and served as the city’s top cop for 11 years.

Levesque discovered that he had the job on Monday. He said Herman was a good mentor to him and admitted that he would have some big shoes to fill.

“There isn’t going to be an overnight change or anything like that,” Levesque said. “I have some ideas. I look forward to put my stamp on the service.”

Levesque said he’s overwhelmed by the support shown by the police board, community and especially his family.

“I would like to pick the brains of the people who work day in and day out on the streets and see what they have to say,” he said after his swearing in.  “I know one of the initiatives will be more crime prevention. I would like to have more officers trained on the new provincial course on crime prevention.”

He said mental health was also a big issue that he wanted to tackle as chief.
But the first order of business was to start a three-year business plan.

Herman wanted to wait until a new chief was appointed before the board went ahead with that initiative. Now, the board is expected to begin that process in September.

As far as the chief’s relationship with Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs, Levesque said he wants to work with everyone in the community and that includes the mayor’s office.

“The office of the chief and the office of the mayor have to have a respectful working relationship together.”

Police board chairman and Westfort Coun. Joe Virdiramo said it took a long time to narrow down the candidates, but added that he is happy with the final decision.

“It’s the choice of the people,” Virdiramo said. “We did get the information from the people and we incorporated that in our search. Community is important and these are good community decisions.”

What put Levesque above the other candidates was his experience with the Thunder Bay Police Service, his compassion and understanding of the area’s issues.

He added that Levesque could hit the ground running in the new position.

With Levesque as the new chief, the board will have to find a new Deputy Chief.

Virdiramo said the board will meet to decide how they will chose the candidates for the position and hope to have a new Deputy Chief sometime in August. 

Hobbs said in an email to tbnewswatch.com that he would like to extend his congratulations to Levesque and that he was looking forward to working with him in the future.