Coun. Mo Salih making moves days after London’s Police Services Board appointment

London’s newest member of the Police Services Board is diving head first into the job.

Ward 3 Coun. Mo Salih says he will make a request to the civic works committee next week to move their meetings from police headquarters to city hall in order to make the meetings more accessible to the public.

Salih was appointed to the position on Monday and said he plans to be very active.

“So I’ll be bringing things forward. I’m never going to shy away, as you know, from taking on an issue head on. I hope to have support from other members, because ultimately it’s not a matter of what I just want to do. I’ll try to make the noise, I’ll try to bring ideas forward, and I hope the rest of the board will be supportive so that we can move forward in a positive direction,” said Salih.

Although he said generally knows what the Police Services Board does, Salih will still spend some time figuring out the details.

“I’ll be bringing forward a few things, I think. First I’m going to try to understand the goals of the police services board and do a little bit more research. I’m familiar with it to an extenet, but of course, every board and commission is a little bit different,” said Salih.

In the end, Salih said, he wants to have a positive impact.

“My goal is to make the community safe and make everyone feel welcome in the city. That’s what I hope to do. I want to make sure that police have the supports they need to do their jobs, as well ensuring to all people in the community that they can trust the police.”

Back in May, the Police Services Board received approval to expand from five to seven members.

On Monday, Salih was voted onto the board by London city council, becoming the third council member on the board along with Mayor Matt Brown and Coun. Stephen Turner.

Salih and a yet-to-be-named provincial appointee will officially join the board later this month.