Vern White is exchanging one office in Centretown for another.
Praise continues to pour in for police chief Vern White after news of his recent appointment to the Senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Leaders and executives from several community groups in Ottawa say they will be sad to see White leave his post next month, after making a big mark on the city during his five years as chief.
“He’s been a good proponent of Ottawa and making sure Ottawa is a safer city and we’re very happy for the chief and wish him luck,” says Robert Dekker, vice-president of the Centretown Citizens Community Association.
Dekker says White’s emphasis on making officers more visible by having them go through neighbourhoods on foot greatly improved the policing of Centretown.
White’s biggest contribution to the city was his successful advocacy for two new treatment centres for drug addicted youth in Ottawa, says Nancy Worsfold, executive director of Crime Prevention Ottawa.
Just days after his Senate appointment was announced on Jan. 6, he helped present a cheque for $2.25 million to the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre to fund the new treatment facilities.
The money came from project STEP, a campaign by Ottawa’s United Way to help addicted youth.
Dave Smith, founder of the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre, heaped praise on White for helping project STEP to succeed.
Smith says the two saw eye-to-eye on the youth addiction issue since they were introduced a few years ago and says that he is glad the Senate post will keep White in Ottawa.
“We need you here,” he told White after the cheque presentation ceremony.
The treatment facilities will likely be built outside of Centretown, with one already under construction in Ottawa’s east end.
White’s time in Ottawa hasn’t been without controversy.
He received part of the backlash from the mistreatment of Stacy Bonds by police in 2010.
Last year, he joined Mayor Jim Watson in publically opposing the creation of a supervised injection site for drug users in Ottawa.
Before being named Ottawa’s police chief in 2007, White was chief of the Durham Regional Police.
He also spent more than 20 years in the RCMP, leaving with the rank of assistant commissioner.
During this time he spent several years posted in the Northwest Territories, and was part of a long-running investigation into the 1992 bombing that killed nine people in the Giant gold mine.
White says his biggest Centretown accomplishments were initiatives that address the solicitation of prostitution and deal with drug dens in the area.
He says that while Centretown has its share of problems, a collective sense of community helps to keep them in check.
“I think that’s what I argue is its strength,” he says. “It wouldn’t matter how good it was going if the community wasn’t engaged, and they are absolutely committed and engaged to making a difference.”
White will remain police chief until Feb. 20, before moving on to his post as a Conservative senator representing Ontario.
Don Meredith, another Conservative senator, says White’s law-and-order experience will come in handy when criminal justice bills come up for review by the Upper house.
“His input there will be critical in assisting the other senators who are not as familiar with law,” says Meredith.
White says while he is proud of the work he has done as police chief, he doesn’t want to be complacent during his final months.
“There’s not a day that goes by where I go home and don’t wish there’s something I had done. I think I said this morning to someone, if I waited to be finished all my work before I leave, I’d be carried out. That’s a reality of what I’ve done in policing. You’re never done.”