Warren Driechel becomes new Edmonton police chief

The Edmonton Police Commission named Warren Driechel the chief of the Edmonton Police Service on Friday. CTV News Edmonton's Evan Kenny has the story.

Edmonton has a new police chief.

The Edmonton Police Commission announced Warren Driechel as the Edmonton Police Service’s (EPS) 24th chief on Friday.

“We believe that Chief Driechel was the best candidate to reduce crime, improve public safety, strengthen relationships between police and our community and increase transparency and public accountability at EPS,” commission chair Ben Henderson told media at the announcement.

“Throughout his career, he is dedicated to innovation, leadership and operational excellence, and he’s known for his strong commitment to community engagement and proactive policing.”

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“To the people of the EPS and to the community of Edmonton. It’s an incredible and daunting privilege to serve as the chief of the Edmonton Police Service. I am excited for the path ahead and mindful of the expectations that come hand in hand with this role,” Driechel said.

“I know I have the privilege of leading an exceptional group of people who do some of the hardest work there is, and I’m so proud to have had such an extraordinary career that has helped me learn, grow and adapt to be considered worthy of this position.”

The new chief began his EPS career in 1997 and has worked in several units and programs, including organized crime and gang investigations and changes in data organization and technology development.

The police commission says it conducted a nation-wide search and that the process included public engagement, including people from the Indigenous, homeless and LGBTQ2S+ communities.

It’s the first time EPS has hired an internal candidate for the position of chief in more than 20 years.

City council ratified the commission’s selection Friday morning.

In a media event on Friday afternoon, Driechel described himself as a team player and said he’s looking forward to working with old colleagues in his new role.

“I think they can trust me. They can bring things to me. They know that I’ll work constructively with them. I see myself as a big collaborator,” he said.

He says he’s looking to keep the service moving in a similar direction to his predecessor.

“I think we’re pointing in the same direction. We’ve built a lot of really great things over the last five, six years, really optimizing some of those things,” he said.

“I’m proud to be able to continue the direction we’re going.”

He says his biggest priority is making EPS more proactive.

“Our biggest challenge right now is that policing organizations, over the last five years, became very reactive to crime, so we became very traditional, the phone rings and we go try to respond to that call,” he said.

“I think the biggest challenge is to start to really focus on those problems. Look at the upstream issues that are affecting our communities.”

His three decades as an Edmonton police officer do not come without controversy.

Earlier this month he oversaw EPS sending a letter to Crown prosecutors threatening to release details of a case to the public if the court went ahead with a deal allowing the accused in the death of an Edmonton girl to plead to a manslaughter charge.

Driechel was also involved in an EPS steroid scandal, buying steroids from another officer.

“I reflect on that event every day, and it follows me every day. I was struggling with some things at the time. They’re very personal to me. I always knew that at some point it would become public, and when it did I struggled with the idea that it defined me as a person,” he said.

“I’m just hoping that eventually I can pass it and it just doesn’t define me.”