Northern hospitality woos Ontario police chiefs

By Ed Veilleux

“It was fantastic.”

That's how Sudbury's Police Chief Frank Elsner described the three-and-a-half day Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police conference, held in the city this week.

The last time Sudbury hosted the conference was in 1991.

“The feedback I got was it was one of the best conferences (the other chiefs) had been to,” Elsner said. “They loved our northern hospitality and were really impressed with our community.”

Among seminars, guest speakers and overall police talk, Sudbury's chief said there was a nice balance to the conference.

“We tried to balance the academic portion with policing, as well as just some general interest items,” he said. “We ended the conference off with the re-greening of Sudbury. That went over huge”

Among the presentations, Elsner said the topic of indigenous people really stuck with him.

“We had a big session on indigenous peoples and it really helped us to frame what the issues are within Canada, where the issues originally rose from and how we as police leaders can help diffuse those situations as opposed to making them worse.”

The chiefs were also educated on how to handle emergencies.

“We had a closed session that was not open to the public on emergency management, which nailed everything from natural disasters, pandemics to criminal and terrorist attacks within municipalities,” Elsner said.

This annual conference benefits not just chiefs, but all members of the police force, he said.

“We bring back a lot of best practices we get from a lot of other police agencies and incorporate them with ours, so it gives us an idea on how to improve our organizations,” Elsner said. “As well, it showcases our organization to others, so our people can interact with other police officers from across Ontario and vendors, so we can look at new equipment and what's out there, everything from information technology to uniforms.”

In total, over 300 delegates and vendors visited the city for the conference.

Elsner insisted the police service was “happy” to help out the local economy and “to bring some much-needed dollars into the community.”