There’s a new guy sitting at the New Westminster Police Department’s community services and media desk.
Sgt. Chad Johnston, an 11-year veteran of the police force, took over the position of public information officer, community services and human resources this week following Sgt. Diana McDaniel’s promotion to staff sergeant.
Johnston has worn many different hats within the department since he was hired more than a decade ago. He’s worked everything from patrol to street crime to major crime and even served with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (now known more commonly as the gang police) for two-and-a-half years.
Prior to joining the New Westminster Police Department, Johnston, who is a native of Delta, worked as a police officer for the Calgary Police Service for four-and-a-half years. He eventually found his way back to the Lower Mainland and was hired in New Westminster.
Aside from a short stint as a broadcast and TV student at BCIT and some basic training through the force, Johnston is a relative newbie to the media/community relations side of policing.
“This position is completely new to me, which is great. It’s something totally different,” he told The Record. “It’s not anything I’d even considered because I’d always been an operational police officer in all the sections I’d done and to be put in here, where now I’m doing recruiting and community services and media relations type thing, it’s all new to me but I’m super excited.”
To prepare for his new role, Johnston will be heading back to school so to speak for some additional media relations training in January along with training he’s already had through the City of New Westminster.
One thing in particular Johnston is looking forward to tackling in his new position is recruiting. As head of human resources for the department, it’ll be Johnston’s responsibility to choose the future crime fighters of the city.
“Recruiting is a big thing that I’m super excited about as far as learning how it’s done and employing different techniques,” he said. “I’ve already been giving it a lot of thought as far as what we can do to give ourselves the best opportunity to move forward with really good new recruits.”
