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Change of command ceremony cost $5,200

$3,000 went to wages for attending officers

The recent change of command ceremony for the New Westminster Police Service was well worth the cost, say local officials.

On June 1, the New Westminster Police Service held a change of command ceremony at Queen's Park Arena that saw outgoing Chief Const. Lorne Zapotichny pass the ceremonial sword overly to new Chief Const. Dave Jones. Members of the police service planned and hosted the event.

According to Jones, the police service spent just over $2,000 on catering, chair rentals and incidentals, such as sound equipment, and just over $3,000 for wages of police officers attending the event. All totalled, he said the event cost about $5,200.

"There was no new funding required for this," he said. "It comes out of our police budget."

Jones said about a dozen members of the police service's patrol division were entitled to some compensation, as per the police collective agreement.

While some sought financial compensation for their attendance at the event, others attended on their own time.

"There were some people who did prepare in advance of this - practising, setup," he added. "They were given time to do it."

While some shifts had to be juggled so some officers scheduled to work could attend the ceremony, Jones said the city's standard for on-duty patrol officers was met.

"We don't sacrifice those numbers for anything," he said.

The June 1 event was the first time in the New Westminster Police Service's 138year history that it's held a formal change of command ceremony.

"I always think events to commemorate special things are good," Jones said. "It's the first time we have ever done this."

Jones said the city chose to recognize the outgoing chief and the incoming chief in a more formal way than what's been done in the past.

He said it was the first time in a "long time" that New Westminster has had a police chief who was promoted from within the organization.

"Anytime any internal candidate succeeds, it is the success of an organization," he said. "People have had to have been supportive, been challenging that person. . It's not just an individual success."

In addition to members of the New Westminster Police Service and the New Westminster Police Board, retired police New Westminster police officers and members from other police detachments attended the change of command ceremony.

"It was a wonderful change of command ceremony," said Mayor Wayne Wright, who chairs the New Westminster police board. "It was something special."

Wright said the ceremony recognized retiring chief Lorne Zapotichny's 43-year career in policing, including a decade in New Westminster, and the new chief, who rose up through the ranks of the New Westminster Police Service to take the top job.

"It's always done," Wright said about a change in command. "It was just done in a more public way."

According to Jones, Const. Bruce Ballingall proposed the ceremony, having seen the success of the police service's flag consecration ceremony in May 2009, where officials honoured the newly developed police service's ceremonial flag.

Jones said the flag consecration ceremony probably cost more than the 45-minute change of command ceremony because it was held after the Hyack Parade and many of the officers required to work on parade day stayed for the flag consecration ceremony.

Wright said a community is made up of moments and events that become part of its history.

"It adds something," he said of these ceremonial events. "Personally, I think it was money well spent."

Jones estimates that about one-half of the police department attended the event, as 42 members were on parade and others were part of the colour guard. The event was held on a Wednesday afternoon because that's the day when the most members of the New Westminster Police Service are working.

"It was absolutely incredible," Wright said about the ceremony.

tmcmanus@royalcityrecord.com