A 31-year veteran who most recently headed up support services for the Hamilton police is now the new deputy chief.
Paul Hamilton, who was also a superintendent with investigative services, takes on the position immediately as announced Monday by the city’s police board chair and mayor Fred Eisenberger.
“This is an exciting day for our service and concludes an extensive recruitment process that involved diverse candidates from both in and outside of Canada, to determine the best individual to support us in fulfilling our mission to serve and protect the citizens of Hamilton in partnership with our communities,” said Eisenberger in a statement.
Hamilton told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton the post was not something he had though about during his career believing his promotion to sergeant would be his last.
“But every time I was promoted I’d seen the opportunity to better the service and things we could do better in the community and that always drove me to go higher in the organization,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton studied sociology and criminology at the University of Ottawa and has been a command lead on numerous multi-jurisdictional major case management investigations for the service, including domestic and international law enforcement agencies.
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He says his beginning as a peace officer was due to a passion for team sports and the similar comradery law enforcement could bring in a chosen career.
“Policing is very much a team environment,” Hamilton said.
“We have to rely on one another each day to deliver public safety.”
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The new deputy, who lives in the Dundas area, says he will continue his work with support services which looks after the functionality of several units including the tactical, marine, canine, mounted, and training.
He will also coordinate existing relationships with other police services in Ontario and continue work on repairing public trust particularly with the LGBTQ community following events surrounding Pride celebrations in Gage Park in 2019.
Read more: Chief, mayor apologize after report finds 2019 Hamilton Pride police actions ‘inadequate’
“Paul is a welcome addition to our Command Team. Over his 31-year policing career, Paul has demonstrated his commitment to community safety and his ability to find innovative solutions to complex issues. His leadership will be important as we partner with the community to promote safety and well-being for all Hamiltonians” said Chief Frank Bergen in a release.
Read more: Hamilton’s new deputy chief says police ‘need to listen’ to diverse communities to do better
He’s the second to join the police services hierarchy after Bergen was sworn in during a virtual ceremony at city hall in May.
Bergen replaced the recently retired Eric Girt.
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