WINDSOR -- The Windsor Police Service is set to become the first Ontario police agency to approve a policy which outlines the response procedure for service calls associated with the police chief of the day, according to Windsor Mayor and WPS Board Chair Drew Dilkens.
Dilkens says a policy is expected to be brought back to the board’s next meeting which will formalize the procedure for the service to respond to calls involving the police chief.
A recent meeting between Dilkens, current WPS Chief Pam Mizuno and the Solicitor General’s Office helped confirm the new policy.
Dilkens says the Solicitor General confirmed no other police agency has a formal policy dealing with calls for service concerning its top ranking officer.
“I think we got to a good place at the end of the day going through the different issues and different scenarios,” says Dilkens.
The new policy comes after a 911 call was made from the home of former Windsor Police Chief Al Frederick in Nov. 2018.
In an interview with CTV News in February, Frederick says the call was in relation to a “deeply personal matter” and lamented the difficult position it put his officers in — conceding there was an “inherent conflict of interest.”
An OPP investigation found the WPS handled the situation appropriately.
Dilkens says the policy will uphold the same action the police service took in Nov. 2018 and believes the meeting with the Solicitor General’s Office reaffirms the actions taken.
“The deputy chief took the right steps in notifying the board chair,” says Dilkens, “The board chair notified the board as a whole and decisions were made as a board collectively with respect to their employee which is the chief of police.”
Frederick retired from the Windsor Police Service in 2019 after a 35-year career in policing.
