{"id":23232,"date":"2019-03-15T12:43:42","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T16:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23232"},"modified":"2019-03-21T18:04:30","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T22:04:30","slug":"yrp-deputy-carrique-takes-helm-of-opp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/yrp-deputy-carrique-takes-helm-of-opp\/","title":{"rendered":"YRP Deputy Carrique takes helm of OPP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

York Regional Police Deputy Chief Tom Carrique has been\nnamed the new Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrique\u2019s appointment to the OPP\u2019s top job was announced\nMonday by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday\u2019s announcement came after several weeks of\ncontroversy surrounding the leadership of the OPP, following the Provincial\nGovernment\u2019s appointment of Ron Taverner to the job at the end of last year.\nDue to Taverner\u2019s relationship with Premier Doug Ford and his family, his\nappointment was met with immediate criticism, culminating Thursday with\nTaverner withdrawing his name from contention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither Carrique nor Sylvia Jones, Minister of Community\nSafety & Correctional Services, would elaborate on just when Carrique was\nfirst approached for the job, going only as far as saying talks took place\n\u201clast week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did not see my future of policing anywhere but here at\nYork Regional Police,\u201d said Carrique on Monday morning, speaking alongside\nMinister Jones at a press conference held at the YRP\u2019s Aurora headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrique told reporters he was \u201cextremely grateful and\ndeeply honoured\u201d by the confidence placed in him by both the Ministry and the\nProvincial government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His voice cracking with emotion, Carrique underscored his\nlong-time service to the YRP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYork Regional Police has been my home, my passion and my\nfamily for 29 years. I have learned a great deal from some of the top police\nleaders that have served in this organization and the extremely dedicated,\nsworn and civilian staff. It is one of the finest police services in this\ncountry. I hope to benefit from my experience here in my new role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accepting the job, he said, was \u201cone of the most\ndifficult decisions I have ever made \u2013 a decision that was made by a compelling\nand deep feeling of dedication to duty and the need to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am going to be extremely proud to be joining one of\nthe finest police services in North America and to be given the opportunity to\nwork alongside the frontline members of the OPP, the leadership, the Ontario\nProvincial Police association, to build on a proud policing history of more\nthan a century and the great work that is done each and every day by the men\nand women of the Ontario Provincial Police,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese dedicated officers and support staff attend over\n780,000 calls for service every year and they have received close to 97 per\ncent approval rating, saying that Ontarians feel very safe, and safe in our\nprovince. All of that, with achieving a 92 per cent clearance rate for the\ninvestigation of violent crime. This only happens with great people and a great\norganization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead to taking on the role of OPP commissioner,\nCarrique said he will work hard \u201ceach and every day\u201d to earn the \u201ctrust and\nconfidence\u201d of his new force, but, in doing so, his priorities will remain as\nthey were during his time at the YRP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me, leadership is about responsibility and there is\nno greater responsibility than that of a police leader because we are charged\nwith the responsibility of the safety and wellbeing of the officers who put\ntheir lives on the line each and every day to serve and safeguard our\ncommunities. Only once we have been able to ensure that our officers are safe\ncan they ensure that our citizens are safe and secure. Finally, a\nresponsibility to ensure that we all safeguard the reputation of our\norganization and the profession of policing in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOperationally, I will focus on working collaboratively\nwith members of the Ontario Provincial Police and our many policing partners\nacross this province and across this country to focus on combatting guns and\ngangs, the illicit trafficking of illegal drugs in this country, and to ensure\nthat we are doing everything within our power to rescue the victims of human\ntrafficking and bring those to justice who exploit them. I will remain focused\non traffic safety. That is a priority for the Ontario Provincial Police and a\npriority I think every police officer needs to be committed to as a core\nfunction of policing responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrique will assume his role as OPP Commissioner on\nApril 8, serving a three-year term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In announcing his appointment, Minister Jones said the\nProvince was \u201cvery excited\u201d about bringing him on board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeputy Chief Carrique will help bring outside vision to\nthe OPP and work with talented officers and civilian staff to bring forward\npositive change,\u201d said Jones in a statement. \u201cDeputy Chief Carrique\u2019s extensive\nexperience is important as the OPP works to tackle challenging files, such as\nhuman trafficking and the ongoing fight against guns and gangs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She reiterated this position at Monday\u2019s press\nconference, noting the importance of the \u201coutside vision\u201d he brings to the\ntable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI actually think the OPP\u2019s role is very collaborative in\nterms of working with other police services, so having someone who has had 29\nyears experience working outside will understand the need for cooperation,\nparticularly on the human trafficking and guns and gangs initiatives,\u201d she\nsaid. \u201cThose have to be done in a collaborative way. To have someone with a\ndifferent view, working in a different service, will be a big asset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to move forward,\u201d she added, when asked if this\nview was alluding to the controversies around the previous appointment. \u201cI want\nto move forward with a new Commissioner, an individual who has a vision for how\npolicing is changing across Canada and in Ontario, and I am very pleased with\nthe choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Carrique: \u201cToday is about moving forward \u2013 moving\nforward for the Ontario Provincial Police, who continue to serve with\ndedication and skill in this province.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cToday is about moving forward,\u201d says appointee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/2019-03-14-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-62I","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 13:03:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}