Claude Chum new NAPS chief of police

Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service’s new chief of police wants to deliver more community-oriented policing to deal with social problems in the NAPS communities.
“The police can only do so much in dealing with these problems,” Chum said. “I think most people agree that a lot of these problems are community problems, not policing problems.”
Chum was hired on at NAPS Dec. 1 and is scheduled to take over as chief of police Jan. 1. He has been in policing for more than 21 years, beginning his career as a constable with the Ontario Provincial Police’s First Nations Program in western Ontario in 1989 and the Anishinabek Police Service in 1996.
He has since worked his way up to sergeant, detachment commander, detective staff sergeant, director of operations for the Central Region and deputy chief of police with Anishinabek Police Service.
Chum wants NAPS to work with the communities through a committee, whether it’s a policing committee or another form of committee, to identify the issues causing social disorder in their community and develop action plans.
“Hopefully through these action plans we start putting in programs, putting in preventive measures,” Chum said. “It could be youth being bored, it could be alcohol abuse, it could be domestic abuse, it could be drugs. What’s causing these problems?”
Chum said community-oriented policing is a long-term program that will not solve problems overnight.
“It’s going to take a few years before you actually see results but we can’t be reacting all the time,” Chum said. “We’ve got to get it out of our minds we’re a reactive police service.”
“We’ve got to start looking at more of a proactive approach on everything that we do in policing.”
As for the prescription drug problem in many communities, Chum said the development of policing or other committees in the communities will be a “big help.”
“We have to identify what the root cause is before we can actually solve a problem,” Chum said. “We can’t keep putting a bandage on everything we are doing. Prescription drugs are a big problem shared by the communities.”
Chum wants community members to step forward with any information or evidence to help stop the prescription drug abuse problem in their communities.
“Once we get them on board, hopefully they will understand that we’ve got to deal with this as a community approach, not just a policing (approach),” Chum said. “We have to help our police solve this problem. The police can only do so much — it is up to the rest of us to do the rest.”
Chum said the current chief of police Robin Jones has taken an aggressive approach on prescription drugs.
“My job is to continue with that and obviously I am going to explore more options in the area of the enforcement plan they put together where I can improve upon it and make it more aggressive,” Chum said. “If you’re doing drugs, you are breaking the law. I’m going to do everything in my power to stop you.”