Police board eyes recruitment committee for next chief

The Winnipeg Police Board is establishing a committee to recruit the city’s next chief, amid talk of a short contract extension for its current top cop.

Board chairman Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) put forward the recommendation to establish a recruitment committee, which will be heard at its Dec. 8 meeting.

On Monday, he called the move “standard procedure.”

“That would be news that the chief should be providing,” Chambers said, when asked whether it is a signal Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth intends to step down after nearly eight years in the leadership role. “This is just part of our normal process of looking forward as the City of Winnipeg.”

Smyth, who has led the WPS since 2016, is set to have the board verbally extend his contract into summer 2024, so he can finish his two-year term as president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, Chambers said recently.

The national position ends in July.

The WPS chief’s current contract — a two-year extension of his initial five-year agreement — was originally set to expire Nov. 30.

Chambers said the board gave Smyth a verbal extension in September 2022, setting the new expiration date at May 2024. The expected new contract extension will last until at least July 2024.

WPS spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said Monday any more information on the committee won’t be available until the Dec. 8 meeting. He said last month Smyth does not want to publicly discuss any retirement plans.

The head of the Winnipeg Police Association said Monday the union that represents some 1,400 officers and 450 civilian employees has not seen anything official from the board about Smyth’s contract being extended.

WPA president Cory Wiles said the union will continue to make efforts to work constructively with the WPS chief, regardless of any decision the civilian oversight authority makes.

He added the union has worked with Smyth on key concerns in recent months, but still wants improvements on others. (Wiles did not specify the concerns that have been addressed.)

Wiles’s predecessor had publicly criticized Smyth over concerns of low morale among the rank and file.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca