As Thunder Bay strives to bring in more business, police chief aims to change city's reputation

Nearly six months into his role as chief of the Thunder Bay Police Service, Darcy Fleury has set three key priorities for his team: restructuring the organization, improving community engagement, and enforcement.

He shared his plans during a luncheon hosted by the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, where business owners met with him and asked questions about how he'll improve community safety.

The police service and its oversight board have received hundreds of recommendations in recent years about how to improve operations. That includes the 2018 Broken Trust report from the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, which found systemic racism within the force, and a report from an expert panel released this spring which called for urgent, transformational change. 

Based on those, Fleury announced that a second deputy police chief will be hired by February or March 2024 who will focus on human resources and administrative tasks. Candidates will be considered both within the service and externally.

Originally, it was suggested this position be dedicated as an Indigenous affairs deputy, but the service decided to delegate that portfolio to Fleury.

"One of the recommendations is to rebuild that trust and it's really important for us," Fleury said. "We've got some really good conversations with our Indigenous groups; their governments and agencies are working towards that. Again, that's going to be a long process but we're definitely laying the groundwork for that and moving in the right direction."

Chamber president Charla Robinson said a key concern among members is what they should do if they see an impaired person loitering outside their business or sleeping in their doorway. There used to be a program run by Shelter House called SOS, which diverted these types of non-criminal calls from police and took a more humane approach, but that ended last fall due to a lack of funding.

Fleury's advice is for businesses to call police anyway, even if an officer can't respond right away.

"We might not be able to act on it immediately but at least we have the information and if we see a continuation or an escalation in activity, then we can actually have some information to fall back on, so it's really important that people call," he said.

The city has struggled with a negative reputation stemming from documented systemic racism within the police force and of being the "murder capital of Canada." That's something Robinson said she hopes the community can overcome.

"Perception is reality when you're looking at attracting, whether that's employees from elsewhere, whether that's businesses from elsewhere, whether that's even students to come to the university and the college," said Robinson. "Anything that we can do to reverse the negative publicity that we've received over previous years is a positive thing."

"I think we're all trying to change the narrative," she said. "Every community does have challenges but we're trying to change the narrative around how we're addressing those challenges."

As part of rebuilding trust with Indigenous groups, Fleury said the police service is working with Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) to visit remote communities, upon invitation, and meet with First Nations youth before they move to Thunder Bay to complete their high school education.

"Part of our reason for going to the communities is to have that engagement with students that may be coming down next year and say: 'Hey this is what you can expect of your police department. Don't be afraid. Don't be worried or scared to come and tell us what's going on,'" he said.