North Bay Police are industry leaders in a couple of areas.

When looking back at 2019, Chief Scott Tod told BayToday that former Chief Shawn Devine led the charge when it comes to addressing shortcomings with sexual assaults being declared unfounded.

“Chief Devine was at the time the only chief in Ontario who stood out and said ‘this is something we need to address, this is something we need to look at’ when a lot of chiefs were following the standard practice of not commenting,” he says.

Tod says that’s led to changes within policing.

He also says the service is a leader with the Community Hub table.

“It started six years ago under the direction of Chief Paul Cook and some great work by Inspector Rob Jerome, and it continues on, that the Deputy and I support now. Those are things that I think that we’re very proud of that we continue to do in 2019 when many other police services and police services board are just coming to terms with community safety and well-being, we’ve been at it for six years,” he says.

Through the Hub, city police work with 21 local agencies like the Health Unit, hospital, Children’s Aid and many others.

Overall, Tod, who became chief this year, says 2019 has been a great year for the North Bay Police Service.