Interesting Wednesday morning at the Vancouver Police Department’s precinct on Cambie Street.
When Jim Chu walked into the Vancouver Police Board meeting, he was still the chief. When he walked out a couple hours later, Adam Palmer had taken his job.
What?
Did he get fired?
Was there a coup?
No, no, no.
For those of you who pay attention to civic affairs and are regular readers of the Courier, you would know that Chu announced in January that he was calling it quits.
Wednesday turned out to be his last official morning on the job and last meeting with the police board, which hired him almost eight years ago.
I spoke to Chu and Palmer after the public portion of the meeting; the obligatory in-camera meeting was to follow and Chu was still technically the chief until the conclusion of that private go-round with the police board.
I asked him what was going through his mind when he woke up on what would be his last official day on the job.
“Cleaning up my files, archiving emails, winding up some issues that just need to be resolved over the next week or two and, of course, I will be there to help Adam in the transition period,” said Chu as he stood across from Palmer near the elevators on the seventh floor of the police building.
Has he had time to reflect on his 36 years as a cop?
“I did a few wind-up interviews with different members of the media and so I did my reminiscing,” he said. “So today, I just want to finish the board meeting and definitely wanted to say how much I appreciated our governance model and working with the board.”
Will he miss the job?
“I will miss the job, I’ll miss the people. But I really realize that good things do come to an end. It’s time to move on to a different phase in my life. So I’m very happy. I don’t regret making the decision to retire.”
OK, so what is that next phase?
“I’m going to take some time off — that’s on orders from my wife. And I’ll see what happens in terms of what the future entails for me.”
How about a shot at politics?
“I’m not ruling out anything right now. But there’s nothing imminent from me.”
Then it was Palmer’s turn.
What was going through his mind when he woke up Wednesday morning, knowing he would take over from Chu?
“Well, ever since it was announced on April 16th, I’ve just been really elated by the whole thing, just really proud to take over the Vancouver Police Department. I feel honoured with the support I’ve received from members within our department and from the community, and people sending me notes and emails and letters and phone calls coming into my office.”
He added: “I’ll tell you I wouldn’t want to do the job if I didn’t have the support of people. I feel like I’m very well supported. I have a great team behind me. So I’m really excited to get going.”
As Palmer said at his first news conference April 17, he doesn’t plan to veer from Chu’s course for the department, saying it will remain status quo.
“There’s always issues, of course, we have to deal with — don’t get me wrong — but I don’t feel like I’m coming in to a bad situation, I feel like I’m coming in to a very good situation,” he said. “I’m not planning wholesale changes from what Jim Chu has been doing right now. I think we’re in a good direction. There will be the Adam Palmer twist on things and way of looking at policing, absolutely. But you’re not going to see us taking a sharp left hand turn and going a different direction overnight.”
Members of the Twitterverse can get a sense of that twist by following Palmer at @ChiefPalmer. Sadly, @Adam12 was taken. (Hey kids: That's a 1970s police drama reference). Anyway, Palmer's account went live Wednesday.
Chu, as his followers will attest, often coloured his tweets with a sense of humour. We’ll see if Palmer does the same, although he admitted Twitter is a new world for him.
“I haven’t done Twitter before, so it’s going to be the first time. So stay tuned and see how that goes. That’s going to be a little bit of trial and error.”
Though Palmer legally became chief Wednesday, a change of command ceremony goes May 25 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. It will be the last day Chu wears his uniform.
twitter.com/Howellings
