Introducing Woodstock Police Chief Rod Wilkinson

Tuesday, 2 August 2022 at 05:27

By Marcie Culbert

After serving as the Deputy Chief for two years, Rod Wilkinson is now the Chief of the Woodstock Police Service.

WOODSTOCK - Rod Wilkinson has been the Chief of the Woodstock Police Service for almost a month now.

He officially stepped into the role on Saturday July 9th, but he had his first official day in office on Monday July 11th.

Wilkinson grew up on a farm in Leamington and started his first policing job with the Woodstock Police Service back in 1997. He has dedicated his entire career to protecting the Friendly City, working in criminal investigations, and serving as a member of the Emergency Response team for 18 years. He became the Deputy Chief in 2020 and officially accepted the Chief position this past spring, once Daryl Longworth announced his retirement plans.

"Daryl met with me over the last three months to make sure I know where everything is and make sure I understand where to find files, find the budget and know how to manage the budget."

Wilkinson says it has been a smooth transition so far. He has been meeting with investigators, officers, and community partners to see what ideas they have for the future.

After looking over a recent citizen survey, Wilkinson is looking into equipping officers with body cameras.

"Body cameras obviously are about building public trust and being transparent. I guess it holds police accountable but it can also speed up investigations. The other thing that it does, is it could hold the public accountable because they know they're being recorded."

He says 80 percent of the survey's respondents said they were in favour of equipping officers with body cameras. He's hoping to conduct a pilot project in order to see how the program would work and how much it would cost.

Wilkinson would also like to see more officers out on the streets instead of behind their desks. In order to make this happen, he would like to provide officers with the tools to file their reports from their cruisers.

Wilkinson is going to be working very closely with Nick Novacich, his new Deputy Chief. The two first met back in 1997; when Wilkinson was a recruit and Novacich had been working with the Woodstock Police Service for five years. Novacich went on to spend 14 years of his career with the Aylmer Police Service and served as their Deputy Chief for two years before moving back to Woodstock. Wilkinson says Novacich brings a lot of great ideas to the table, adding his policing experience outside of the Friendly City will be a great asset.

With both Wilkinson and Novacich at the helm of the Woodstock Police Service, Wilkinson says their number one goal will be maintaining a good relationship between police and the community.