Edmonton’s police chief will no longer lead the force after his contract ends in five months, and on Friday, he told the public his side of the story.
Chief Rod Knecht said a disagreement with the Edmonton Police Commission (EPC) over contract extension timelines is the reason why he’ll leave the post in October.
In a statement, Knecht said he wanted to help further develop five initiatives, including setting up a strategy for cybercrimes, creating a community wellness centre, launching the Operations and Intelligence Command Centre (OICC), seeing the Northwest Division Campus and administrative building be complete, and mentoring officers to help them compete for his job.
He said he will need until the end of June 2019 – a date previously agreed upon with the EPC – to help advance these initiatives and assist with the selection of a new chief.
Knecht said a few weeks after agreeing on the date, the EPC proposed to extend the contract until March 2019 and it provided no other options.
“While my preference would have been to stay to progress these initiatives sufficiently, I didn’t believe that a five-month extension was enough time to adequately address them,” he said.
“I also felt it wouldn’t be in the best interests of the organization or the community to leave in the midst of such significant organizational change given that adjusted time frame.”
The EPC's chair said the commission wanted to get the search for a new chief started sooner.
"His timeframe was a little different than ours," chair Tim O'Brien explained. "Our reasons were to get the search done as expeditiously as possible and make the switch to the new chief as soon as we could."
The EPC has created a hiring subcommittee to begin the search for a new replacement, which is expected to take four to six months.
Knecht said over the next five months, he will focus on advancing the cybercrime strategy, work on the OICC, prepare for cannabis legalization and help with the transition to the next chief of police.
