Promotion accepted

Andy Hay remembers walking into the Donald Street police station on Oct. 1, 1984 and not knowing which floor he was supposed to be on.

It was his first day as a member of the Thunder Bay Police Service and at that point he never thought he would one day become the force’s deputy chief.

“Early in my career I just wanted to be a police officer and wanted to serve this community in my capacity as a police officer,” Hay said Tuesday morning, minutes after being sworn in as the force’s deputy chief.

“Over the years, I’ve had numerous opportunities within this police force and it came to the point where I thought I could offer more to this police service in a leadership role.”

Hay is filling the role previously held by police chief J.P. Levesque, who said the two have worked together for the majority of both of their careers and work well together.

“I think we complement each other very well and I think probably most importantly, we’re on the same page and recognize the same issues that we’re going to be dealing with here at the service,” Levesque said.

“In the Thunder Bay police force, there is no question the chief and I are very good friends and our ideas are very aligned with each other and hopefully that will bring some new synergies to our senior command team,” Hay said.

Levesque said the first task at hand is some restructuring because of the trickle-down effect of the positions of chief and deputy chief being filled internally. Then they will focus on developing a business plan.

Hay said their first plan of attack is to form a strategy to bring the police service to a new level in terms of organization, crime prevention and community safety.

Thunder Bay Police Services board chairman Joe Virdiramo said they advertised internally for the position and received five applications. They felt the strength of the applicants didn’t warrant a further search and began interviews.

“Andy came above the rest in relation to knowledge, experience and expertise in the area of policing,” he said, noting the other candidates were strong and he was pleased with the talent they already had within the system.

Virdiramo added it’s easy to see that Levesque and Hay will work well together.

“They’ve been here a long time,” he said. “They know what policing is about in Thunder Bay.”

Hay, whose brother is Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue chief John Hay, is a 27-year veteran with the Thunder Bay Police Service. He graduated from the Canadian Police College Executive Development Program and Lakehead University’s business leadership program.