Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police

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The Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police is the head of the Ontario Provincial Police force in the Canadian province of Ontario.

Pre-OPP Provincial Force Chiefs

In May 1875, the first head of a provincial police force was John Wilson Murray, who was a provincial constable appointed to the position of Detective for the Province of Ontario.[1]

Murray was joined by two detectives under his command, Joseph Edwin Rogers in 1884 and William D. Greer in 1897.

Beginning of the OPP

Chief Detective Murray died in 1906 and in 1909, the Ontario Provincial Police Force was formally created consisting of 45 constables under the direction of Superintendent Joseph E. Rogers, who began as a detective under Murray in 1884.[2]

Police Commissioner

In 1921, the force was reorganized as the OPP with the passage of the Provincial Police Force Act and Major General Harry M. Cawthra-Elliot was appointed to the newly created position of Commissioner.[3] In 1922 Rogers was dismissed from the force by Williams thus ending his tenure as the head of the OPP.

Since 1939 most OPP Commissioners have mostly been police officers (Silk was a civilian) and some promoted within the OPP.

Years Served Name Notes
1921–1922 Major General Harry Macintyre Cawthra-Elliot (1867–1949)[4] Cawthra-Elliot was career military officer and married into the Cawthra family
1922–1939 Major General Victor Arthur Seymour Williams C.M.G. (1867–1949)[5] Williams was the second career military officer to head the OPP, he was previously an Inspector with the North-West Mounted Police
1939–1953 William H. Stringer (1886–1953) Stringer was career OPP officer, the first to be promoted within the force[6]
1953–1958 Edwin V. McNeill (1896–1962) McNeill was an OPP Inspector and served briefly as interim Windsor Police Chief
1958-1963 Wilfred Hamilton Clark (1904-1971);[7][8] Clark was a career OPP officer
1963–1973 Eric Hamilton Silk, QC (1908–2004)[9] Silk was the first civilian head of OPP; he was career civil servant (counsel with the Office of the Attorney General of Ontario)
1973–1981 Harold Hopkins Graham (1916–2001) Graham was a career officer with the OPP; former Inspector, Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner
1981–1983 James Laird Erskine (1916–2005) Erskine was former head of OPP fraud squad and Deputy Commissioner
1983–1988 Robert Archibald (Archie) Ferguson Ferguson was 37 year OPP veteran (1951–1988) [10]
1988–1998 Thomas Bernard O'Grady (b. 1936) O'Grady was a 36 year veteran of the OPP (1962–1998) [11]
1998–2006 Gwen M. Boniface (b. 1956) Boniface was a career OPP officer; joined Garda Síochána Inspectorate (National Police Force) as advsior in 2006
2006–2010 Julian Fantino (b. 1942) [12] Fantino was a Metro Toronto Police veteran; later served as Chief of Police of the London Police Service, York Region Police and Toronto Police Service; head of Emergency Measures Ontario (as Deputy Minister)
2010-2014 Christopher D. Lewis (b. 1953) Lewis is a former Deputy Commissioner and OPP veteran[13]
2014- Vince Hawkes Hawkes joined the OPP in 1984 and is a former Deputy Commissioner (field operations).[14]

References

  1. ↑ Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
  2. ↑ http://www.opp100.ca/English/history.html
  3. ↑ http://www.opp100.ca/English/media/documents/backgrounder_long_eng.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.opp100.ca/English/media/documents/backgrounder_long_eng.pdf
  5. ↑ http://www.opp100.ca/English/media/documents/backgrounder_long_eng.pdf
  6. ↑ http://www.opp100.ca/English/media/documents/backgrounder_long_eng.pdf
  7. ↑ The Globe and Mail, "W.H. Clark: Served 5 years as OPP chief" Nov. 4, 1971, page 5
  8. ↑ Higley,Dahn D.,"O.P.P. The History of the Ontario Provincial Police Force", The Queen`s Printer, Toronto, 1984
  9. ↑ http://www.opp100.ca/English/history.html
  10. ↑ http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=1401976
  11. ↑ http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/34-1/l039.htm
  12. ↑ http://www.opp100.ca/English/history.html
  13. ↑ http://www.opp.ca/ecms/index.php?id=22
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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