Q&A: Edmonton police Chief Warren Driechel says he doesn't regret public criticism of plea deal

For the first time in 20 years, Edmonton’s police chief is a local hire.

When Warren Driechel officially stepped into the top role, it came after nearly three decades with the Edmonton Police Service. The chief’s predecessor, Dale McFee, said before he stepped down that he wanted to see the next leader of EPS come from within. The force hasn’t seen a new chief named from its own ranks since former EPS chief Fred Rayner was hired in 2004. 

As the new chief takes the reins, he sat down with CBC News to talk about his priorities for the job, and a major controversy that marked the beginning of his tenure.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You’ve been an officer in Edmonton for a long time. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in terms of addressing crime?

We've moved to a city of 1.2 million people and that creates a lot of infrastructure challenges. Moving around the city is not as easy as it used to be, so from a policing perspective, how are we responding to calls? How quickly can we respond? Where do we need our police? 

The cyberworld, cybercrime, your social media presence, all those things have really impacted how investigations can get done. The world has expanded exponentially in terms of how people can connect, so your criminal element is using those kind of methods.

You look at the seriousness of the drug problem in the city of Edmonton, in the province, in Canada, North America — 30 years ago, the drugs that were on the street were not as lethal, not as damaging.… The people that are really in need and those highly addicted individuals, how do we support them? How do we respond to them?

Last year, former chief Dale McFee said he thinks one of the biggest challenges facing the new chief is navigating politics. Do you see that, or what’s your take on the difficulty of that?

It’s been an eye-opener to me for sure. I mean, it's a very political position. I don't see myself as a politician, don't want to be a politician, but I think it's important to understand how the politics work.

I think one of the things coming into this role was to try to show a little humility, and work with our partners, not be so oppositional, and try to figure out how do we all work together to solve some of these community safety problems?

It was just a few days before the announcement that you were taking the chief role that the letter came out addressing the plea agreement for the case of the death of a child, and EPS asking provincial officials to intervene in that. We’ve seen that get pretty significant criticism: that this is potentially against the Charter, this is outside the role of police, this is interference in the justice system.

Do you still see that as the right thing to do?

I've learned since, there's two sides to every story for sure.… It's hard to appreciate the demands on the Crown as well. Everything that we deal with, they eventually see.