Acting Deputy Police Chief Vince Wurfel is retiring from the Owen Sound Police Service, but he won’t be putting his feet up just yet.
Friday (April 28th) is Wurfel’s last day with the Owen Sound department, then he’s heading about 50 kilometres north to Neyaashiinigmiing First Nation at Cape Croker to become Supervisor of Police.
Wurfel says the Neyaashiinigmiing Police Service is much smaller than Owen Sound with about five officers, whereas Owen Sound has just under 40.
In Cape Croker he’ll be doing the duties of anything from a sergeant to a chief of police.
Wurfel, now 50 years old, started out his career in Toronto in the 51 Division in Regent Park which he calls an ‘interesting start.” (Regent Park is the oldest public housing project in Canada). He then took on a job policing in Owen Sound where he’s stayed for the past 27 years.
Wurfel says he’s just not quite ready to stop policing completely, “I still have a lot of energy and passion for policing and I’ve done 31 years of municipal policing. The opportunity came and after exploring it – it seemed like it was a good fit and it was something I was excited to try. “
Looking back on his career so far, Wurfel says a lot of the challenges in communities are similar no matter where you go, “Substance abuse, mental health problems, and a lot of those symptoms make their way to the font line of policing where we deal with that sort of challenge and a lot of it is the same no matter what community you’re in.”
He’ll be sworn into his new position May 8th.
