Leaves of three senior officers will ‘impact’ London police: Chief

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The loss of three senior police officers who went on medical leave this month will have an impact on London police, but it won’t affect the force’s ability to serve the community, the chief says.

Deputy Chief Trish McIntyre and two senior officers – a superintendent and an inspector – are off the job after taking medical leaves in the past two weeks, said two sources familiar with the matter, both who asked not to be identified because they didn’t want to speak publicly about the sensitive issue.

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Chief Thai Truong addressed the issue for the first time Thursday following a police board meeting, where McIntyre wasn’t in attendance.

“It will definitely impact the organization, but I can tell you that we have tremendous talent in this organization, tremendous leadership in this organization,” Truong said in an interview. 

“The three senior officers that are temporarily off right now are very important to us, but we have an organization that doesn’t stop policing because people are off.”

Police board chair Ali Chahbar previously said an interim deputy chief may be appointed at Thursday’s meeting, but that didn’t happen and no explanation was given.

The loss of the senior officers comes less than two weeks after the firing of the three most-senior civilian police staffers – the directors of legal, human resources and finance – earlier this month. The senior leadership team, made up of Truong and three deputies, was to oversee the three affected departments on an interim basis.

Truong dismissed concerns that the public may draw its own conclusions about the veteran officers going off on leave so close together following the terminations of the directors, two of whom have retained labour lawyer Susan Toth, a former police board chair. 

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“I don’t worry too much about what conclusions are drawn,” Truong said. “My responsibility is to make sure this organization is operating the way this community expects.”

The London Police Association, the union representing the nearly 900 officers and civilian staff, didn’t respond to an interview request, but released a statement on X, the social media site formally known as Twitter.

“Our members are entitled to privacy as they navigate their personal affairs. We will not comment on any personal matters of our members in the media or elsewhere,” the association said.

In 2020, former deputy Chief Stu Betts told the police board about one in 10 London police employees are off the job for reasons ranging from workplace injuries and mental health problems to family accommodations.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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