Guelph police announced Friday that veteran RCMP officer Gordon Cobey will take the reins as police chief on March 1.
“The profile of Mr. Cobey and the board’s strategic plan are in alignment,” Guelph Police Services Board Chair Don Drone said in a statement. “We look forward to his tenure as our new chief of police.”
Cobey has been a member of the RCMP since 1993, beginning with postings in rural communities and remote areas of northern Manitoba.
“My last posting in Manitoba was in the Winnipeg drug section before I came back to Ontario,” Cobey said.
Throughout his career, Cobey has steadily risen through the ranks of the RCMP, recently serving as its employee management relations officer in Ontario, as well as being an inspector and the acting superintendent of the Criminal Intelligence Program.
He believes his broad experience with the Mounties will pay off in his new role.
“I am hoping that diversity of experience will help support the service and serve the community at the same time,” he explained.
The new chief has been handed some excellent advice as he becomes Guelph’s top cop.
“Listen more than you speak,” Cobey said he has been advised.
“I think it’s really important. The diversity of opinion, background of experiences. The strength of all that diversity, ultimately it informs out debate and it gives us better data, more informed decisions to take the right actions.”
Cobey said his family has lived in Guelph since around 1992.
“Our kids have grown up here,” he said. “They are still in school. We are very exicted to get this opportunity in a place that we have called home for so long.”
Cobey replaces Jeff DeRuyter, who announced in September that he would be retiring after 35 years with Guelph’s police service.
*With files from CJOY’s Darren Baxter