Officer wellness, community relationships priorities for new LaSalle police chief

This week the town of LaSalle is welcoming its new police chief to the job.

Michael Pearcetakes the helm after the retirement of former police Chief Duncan Davies. Pearce joins the LaSalle police service from the Chatham-Kent Police Service's community patrol branch, where he was the inspector in charge of the branch.

Pearce spoke with Windsor Morning'sPeter Dodge about his priorities for the police service, including officer wellness and community relationships.

I'm familiar with you from your days of taking calls from the media in Chatham-Kent, but you worked in a number of other specialized roles during your career. Can you tell us how those have helped you prepare for becoming a chief?

I think understanding operations and administration in an organization, having a broad understanding of how organized police organizations operate is essential. So, being broad rather than deep, if that makes sense. So rather than focusing on specializing in one particular area for your whole career, it's super helpful to to move around in the organization and understand how different sections operate.

Windsor Morning10:39New police chief on duty in LaSalle today

Michael Pearce is taking over as the police chief in LaSalle, as of today.

You need to have skills beyond being a good cop to run a police department, and you have a lengthy paragraph educational credentials. What do you see as the most important training you have to be in leadership like this?

Well, that's a difficult question ...I go back to having a broad educational background.

That was deliberate because if I felt I was lacking knowledge in a particular area, I went out and sought that education.

It sounds almost like you've been planning or dreaming of becoming a police chief for quite a while.

What attracted me to LaSalle is that it's a smaller police organization and what I tell people is they do community policing right and ... I enjoy doing that work. So I fully intend, as time permits,to get out on the road with the guys and girls and help out on the road.

That's important to me. Being visible is important to me. So have I been planning on being a chief for a few years? I've been hoping to certainly not my whole career. I couldn't have imagined that when I got into policing I would be the chief of a police service. But certainly for the last two years, you know, I've I've hoped to achieve this and I'm thrilled, I'm ecstatic to join LaSalle.

As I mentioned ...LaSalle is kind of an island when it comes to policing. You have Windsor police going through that municipality back and forth to patrol Windsor and Amherstburg. You have the OPP all around. How do you see LaSalle police fitting in on that map?

I guess you pointed out that it's a little unique to have a smaller community surrounded by two larger police services. But I understand that LaSalle has tremendous support from the citizens. And that's another thing that's attractive for me entering the organization. I hope to work collaboratively with Winder police and the OPP in this area.

What do you see as the greatest strengths of La Salle that make it so desirable?

I thinkthe low crime rate is one reason. I've been watching council now for a little while and they seem to be making smart decisions, good infrastructure decisions. Geographically, it's wonderful. The communities are vibrant. There's lots of parks and trails, which I guess I would say the from my perspective anyway, the planning's been done right.

You also spent some time in the traffic division in Chatham-Kent, and I'm sure you saw some pretty terrible scenes there. How has that shaped the way that you see the work police do?

Well, I'll tell you that for me the worst part of the job in policing is telling a family member that they've lost somebody. Me seeing sometimes gruesome scenes pales in comparison to having to level some devastation on a family by telling them they've lost a loved one. So that by far, that's the hardest part of the job for me.

Certainly officer wellness is a priority for me. I'm aware of a few things that we're going on here, but we'll be implementing a few more initiatives to make sure that our folks are healthy and well. Because if they're not, then they can't take care of the folks in LaSalle.

I'm sure you're very well aware of the role of police, and society has come under the microscope a lot during the course of your career. Where do you see that now in light of issues that are currently facing our communities?

Well, I think the pendulum is starting so police used to have tremendous support and then that I don't want to say evaporated, but certainly was eroded over a number of years.

We suffer from some of the sins that occur in the United States. We consume their media. And so policing in the United States and Canada is quite different in terms of structure and level of training and that type of thing. Not that police officers in Ontario don't step in mud every now and then because it happens. But the erosion of trust and policing is in large part due to inputs from the United States and influence from the United States.

But we're starting to see that pendulum swing a little bit. Over the last number of years, it's been more difficult to recruit officers because there seems to be less interest in the profession ...and I think we're just starting to come out from that tunnel and we're seeing more people interested in policing. So, you know, it's on us to build good relationships with our communities and make policing a desirable place to be.

And before we let you go, I understand you have a strong connection to hockey and you've been a referee in university hockey, Junior B, the OHL You like to, you know, enforce the rules.

I suppose so. I started refereeing when I was 16 years old. I got into it happenstance and then I started to really enjoy it and work my way up.I was reffing in the OHL when I became a police officer. So that sort of predates my life in policing. So there's certainly some similar similarities, right? Conflict management and dealing with sometimes adverse relationships or adverse situations.

I've taken up coaching, both my daughters play travel hockey ... I love watching my kids grow up and play the game that I love.