The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

(D Police chief enjoys challenges the job presents BY JANET RICHARDS Belleville - He once worked 52 hours straight while inves- tigating a double homicide in Burlington and was recently approached as a possible candidate to head up Canada's sixth largest municipal police force, but Stephen Tanner finds his role as Belleville's police chief challenging in itself "Here in Belleville the chief or a senior police officer needs to be a lot more up to date and directly involved in a variety of issues," said Tanner, 47. Born and raised in Oakville, Tanner graduated from the University of Guelph in 1982 with a bachelor of arts degree in biology and psychology. Tanner said he had just been accepted to law school in Windsor when he was offered a position with the Halton Regional Police Service. Tanner said he really would have gone to law school with the goal of becoming a Crown at- torney but he chose to accept the position with the police instead. While with the Halton Police Service, Tanner served as a uniformed officer and detective at both the constable and sergeant level within the city of Burlington. He also worked at the regional headquarters in areas .such as intelligence, training and major crime, and homicide during his 16 years in Halton. In 1996, Tanner became a forensic polygraph examiner serving both the Halton and Hamilton-Wentworth police services until the end of 1998. Tanner said most police careers are 32 to 35 years long and in the first 16 years of his career, he's had an opportu- nity to do everything he wanted to as an officer. While he does sometimes miss the front line work, and occasionally thinks back to what it would be like working on major crime cases, Tanner is now able to tackle major crime on a differ- ent level. "I'm looking at my last 16 years as an opportunity to make sure others can do an effective job," said Tanner. In December of 1998 Tanner ac- cepted a position as deputy chief of operations for the Guelph City Police Service and in March 2000, he relo- cated to Belleville as deputy chief for the Belleville Police Service. "I thought the opportunity was great- er to help out here," said Tanner, add- ing that he knew then that Chief Dave Klenavic was going to retire within a couple of years and that there could be an opportunity to become chief. "From my early years there was al- ways the thought of how far you can move in the ranks," said Tanner. "I think to me the chief as the head of an organization was always appealing." In January 2002, Tanner became one of the youngest po- lice chiefs in Canada when he took over as top cop with the Belleville Police Service. The role is one that requires Tanner to deal with a variety of issues - administration, human resources, finances, me- dia relations and operations. Tanner said he spends 40 to 50 per cent of his time be- ing the official head spokesperson, a role that is somewhat political. "We have to exist and thrive whatever the political climate is," said Tanner. In his seven years as head of the Belleville Police Service, Tanner has worked under four mayors. "All of the mayors that I've had here have all been in sup- port of the police service," Tanner said. Halton Police Service where Tanner started out employs 700 to 800, Guelph about 240; in Belleville it's 120. Tanner said there are advantages and. disadvantages to both a small and large service. A police force the size of Belleville's allows Tanner the opportunity to get to know all of the employees, police and civilian, and to deal with a variety of situations "almost personally. "In a really large service, there area experts who deal in each area and report to the chief," Tanner said. He almost had the opportunity to experience that first- hand when he was recently shortlisted for the position of Winnipeg police chief. Tanner said he was contacted by an executive search firm from Winnipeg about the position. "On one level it's an honour to be considered and asked," Tanner said. Winnipeg has 1,700 members, making it the sixth largest municipal police service in the country, he said. Continued on next page Page 7ft The Community Press, Quinte Edition, December 14, 2007