The three most senior civilian London police employees are out of a job after a round of restructuring that will save the force more than $550,000 in annual salaries.
Legal services director Patty Malone, human resources director Lindsay Ferrier and facilities, finance and fleet director Rob Lovecky were let go effective immediately, the city’s police board told employees in an internal email obtained by The London Free Press.
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“As we move through this transition period, the impacted departments will be overseen, on an interim basis, by our senior executive team,” said the email from board chair Ali Chahbar.
The senior leadership team – Chief Thai Truong and his deputies – was recently expanded to include a third deputy chief: Treena MacSween, a former Hamilton police superintendent who was sworn in two weeks ago.
Chahbar declined to speak about personnel matters, but said the restructuring is part of the board’s goal of finding efficiencies.
“The board is conducting a review of certain departments within the organization,” he said Tuesday. “We’re going to look for operational efficiencies, we’re going to look for redundancies, we’re going to look for areas where we can be more effective in . . . delivering service.”
The restructuring comes a little more than two months after London police secured a record-setting $672-million budget over the next four years from London city council. The force’s $168-million budget for 2024 is a 28 per cent increase from last year.
The money will be used to outfit front-line officers and cruisers with cameras, hire an additional 189 uniformed and civilian staffers and build a new police training centre.
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Chahbar said the board, the seven-member body responsible for overseeing policing in London, recognizes the “historic investment” in the force and is committed to ensuring police provide better service and make the community safer.
“And that can’t be accomplished by simply putting more officers on the streets,” he said. “That’s a component of it, but we’re also looking at structures within the organization to find out what’s working, what’s not working.”
The job cuts also will ensure compliance with Ontario’s Community Safety and Policing Act, the sweeping new law that replaced the 34-year-old Police Services Act on April 1. It says directors of certain departments can’t be members of police associations, the unions that represent officers and civilian employees.
London Police Association, the union representing the nearly 900 London police officers and civilian staff, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The three directors were paid a combined $561,000 in salaries in 2023, according to an annual disclosure of Ontario public-sector employees making more than $100,000.
A London police spokesperson declined comment and referred all questions to the police board.
dcarruthers@postmedia.com
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