The Record’s crime reporter, Cayley Dobie, recently sat down with the New Westminster Police Department’s two previous chief constables and its current leader to hear how policing in the Royal City has changed since the mid-’90s.
In this final installment, we look at what’s to come for the 141-year-old department and how it plans on getting there.
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In offices across the country there is a growing generational gap between employees.
At the New Westminster Police Department, the gap is quite noticeable. While there are many young officers working their way up the ranks, most management positions are held by officers who will likely retire within the next decade – if not sooner.
Next year, for example, three of five New Westminster officers in management positions will retire, leaving large vacancies that will have to be filled – but by who?
That’s the question Chief Const. Dave Jones is hoping to answer sooner rather than later.
“As long as you know about it, it’s a great opportunity,” Jones says. “When you know that it’s happening, it gives you a lot of time to advance plan. So decisions we’re making today are about what’s going happen next year.”
Jones himself is the product of effective planning. His predecessors Lorne Zapotichny and Peter Young were both brought into the department because there had been no succession plan in place when former police chief Jack Fordham took an early retirement. Fordham’s departure resulted in a nationwide search for his replacement.
Jones says succession planning is a sign of success for an organization.
“It’s not the success of an individual or self-picking somebody because it will fall apart, and the succession planning will fail really quickly if the person can’t do the job and you’ll have to get rid of him and come from outside,” Jones says.
When Young was named chief constable in 1996, he immediately went to work on a succession plan, and while the plan wouldn’t come to fruition until after he retired, it helped shaped the department into what it is today.
“Succession plans need to be purposeful, need to be stated and need to be changed if they don’t work,” Jones says. “Being clear to people in the organization that there are opportunities and there are opportunities to succeed.”
And opportunities will be plenty as the years roll by and more and more officers reach retirement. With three retirements waiting to be confirmed for next year, Jones is already anticipating the numerous vacancies those retirements will leave, and as Young reminds him, it’s not just about filling the three spots, it’s about ensuring there are enough officers ready to move into the positions left behind by those who are promoted.
“Succession planning isn’t just planning for the chief and deputies, (Jones is) looking at constables who are ready to take supervisory roles, sergeants who are ready to go up, so it’s right from the bottom up,” Young says. “You also have another responsibility, and that is to look after and reward those who just want to be good constables.”
One of the key things chief Jones is hoping to stress to his officers is that no matter what you’re interested in pursuing at the department, the time to do it is now. The department is actively hiring with the intention of filling numerous positions that will come open as more and more officers retire. In order to fulfill this aspiration, Jones is marketing his department as the department to work for – a place full of opportunities.
“We’re hoping to say to them you can achieve it here, it’s a matter of time, effort and ability. So if you put in the time, give it the effort and have the ability, you’ll achieve what you’re capable of,” Jones says. “It’s about creating the opportunity for people to succeed.”
But there’s also a lot of pressure on the department to ensure the transition will be a smooth one for the officers being promoted. Speaking to the three management positions that will open up next year, Jones says he plans on having the officers who fill those spots identified this year.
“This isn’t going to be a baton hand-off like an Olympic race. It’s going to be people coming up ahead of time, getting into the role a head of time, which is why we’re hiring to over hire, so we can move people sooner than later,” Jones adds.
As for the search for the next police chief of the New Westminster Police Department, Jones is coy about his intentions.
Promoted to chief constable when he was only 49 years old, Jones has three years left on his contract and admits retiring is not really something he is considering right now.
“Contracts can be renewed,” Jones adds, mischievously.
Zapotichny knows all about renewals. He spent 10 years as chief constable of the department, after the mayor and police board renewed his contract in the mid 2000s.
But he, Jones and Young all agree that striving to be police chief isn’t always the best way to achieve success.
“Because this is a job of responsibility, not privilege. Itdoesn’t mean you get the best parking spot – you do – doesn’t mean you get the best office – you do – but it’s not about that. It’s about saying you’re responsible,” Jones says. “Getting the chief’s job is more about falling into it. It’s about being the right person – the right time, the right place and the right person.”
When the time does come for Jones to retire, he and his predecessors have some advice for their successor.
“I often said to Dave, ‘If you want to succeed in this job as the chief, you’ve got to be adaptable, you’ve got to be understanding, you’ve got to be human,’ because that’s who you’ve got working for you is human people and they all have the same feelings that you have,” Zapotichny says.
For Young, who left the department after four years as the chief, he says being chief is about more than a title.
“As chief, you have the prestige, the aura, the uniform and the office, and when you retire all you have is your own credibility left, your own ethics left and so to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I’ve stayed true to that,’ I found that pretty important,” Young says.
For now, Jones says he’ll continue working on the succession plan in hopes of staying ahead of retirements, while caring for the department he’s been a part of for nearly three decades.
“You still have to care, you still have to manage people and be respectful and all the issues that come with that, but it’s all about planning,” Jones says.
