Preparing Canada’s Next Generation of Police Chiefs

The CACP’s Police Executive Mentorship Program

Each new president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) brings with them a vision and goals for their respective two-year mandate. In August 2018, Chief Constable Adam Palmer of the Vancouver Police Department in British Columbia was elected president of the CACP. His goals were particularly focused on broadening the body of professional knowledge in support of the development of progressive, community-oriented leaders.

Inspired by the Police Executive Leadership Institute program in the United States, Chief Palmer set out to obtain the support of his peers for the creation of a mentorship program with a design and content that would be uniquely Canadian and would contribute to the CACP’s mission, and more specifically to the strategic pillar focused on “Our people,” which aims to “support today’s police professionals and help develop the police leaders of the future.”1 A motion was presented to, and approved by, the CACP Board of Directors in November 2019, with a target of 2020 to launch a new Police Executive Mentorship Program (PEMP) in Canada. As the champion for the project, Chief Palmer stated, “There are excellent police leaders in Canada with decades of experience and a community of emerging leaders with immense potential,” a point that resonated with CACP board members.2

As Chief Palmer’s term as president of the CACP drew to an end in August 2020, his commitment to the realization of the new mentorship program did not. Chief Palmer and then-Chief Bryan Larkin of the Waterloo Regional Police Service (and present deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), who assumed the helm of the association, successfully ushered in the new program later that year. To oversee the development of the program, they called upon retired Chief Trevor McCagherty to assume the coordination of the PEMP. He has been the main architect behind this very successful program.