Mayor Wade Mills on the Transition to OPP

Statement from Mayor Wade Mills on the Transition to OPP - February 18, 2021

Today at 12:00 pm policing within the Town of Shelburne will officially and formally transition

from the Shelburne Police Service to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). As Mayor, I am filled with

mixed emotions as this transition marks both an historic end as well as an exciting future.

Our community has been policed by the Shelburne Police Service since 1879. Since that time, our

community and our police service have grown and evolved together. Through successive

generations, two world wars, a great depression, two global pandemics, and a more recent

explosion of population growth, our local officers have remained at the ready to serve and protect

our community with dignity, bravery, and compassion. This tradition of service stands as

unimpeachable today as it ever has and for that our community will be sad to close this chapter.

With an eye to the future, we as a community also have much to look forward to. For many of us,

we have come to know our local officers as friends and neighbours and we value the local

connections that have been forged. Fortunately, these relationships will not be lost as each and

every member of the Shelburne Police Service who applied to the OPP has been successfully

hired. After a short transition and training period, we will welcome our officers back home to

Shelburne in their new uniforms. When they return, our officers will be a part of one of North

America’s largest deployed police services with more than 5,800 uniformed officers, 2,400 civilian

employees and 830 auxiliary officers. They will also be supported by the tremendous network of

resources that the OPP have at its disposal. I am confident – and you should be too – that our

officers will be well equipped to continue to provide the level of policing service that our

community expects and deserves.

To Chief Moore, Sgt. Bennett, SpC Kerr, PC Morash, and Karen McLean who are not transitioning

to the OPP, I want to offer a personal note of gratitude for your years of dedicated and

professional service and I wish you all the very best as you move into this next exciting phase of

life. To our officers and civilian staff who will be continuing with the OPP, I wish you luck as you

embark upon this next lag of your career journey and I cannot wait to see you all back here in

early March when we will hold a proper ceremony to mark the occasion. In the words of Charles

Dickens, “The pain of parting is nothing compared to the joy of meeting again.”

On behalf of Council, Town of Shelburne staff, the Shelburne Police Services Board, and our entire

community, I wish to thank all members of the Shelburne Police Service, both past and present,

for everything that you have done to serve this community that we all love.

2021 Shelburne Police Service Members:

Chief Kent Moore

Sgt. Mark Bennett

Sgt. Paul Neumann

PC Carey Widbur

PC Cory Courtney

PC Andrew Fines

PC Catlin Conner

PC Robert Button

PC Jennifer Roach

PC Jeff McLean

PC Bob Fudge

PC Ryan Hubbert

PC Dennis Jeronimo