Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah met with Brampton council earlier this month to formally introduce himself and outline his vision for policing, which will place a greater emphasis on community relationship building and technology moving forward.

“The way we’ve done policing has to change,” Duraiappah told council on Feb. 5. "It’s so complex. The confluence of issues that we see on the road and that the public sees in the news and the media cannot always be solved by us.”

“This is not me absconding from my responsibility. We will always be the professionals at emergency response (and) incident response … but we understand that we need to bring community partners at a real engaged level,” the chief said. “As we move forward, you will see an emphasis on collaborative initiatives to mitigate risk in the community.”

Duraiappah, who was sworn-in as Peel Region’s new police chief last October, said technology and innovation will be key components to his strategy — citing the upcoming downtown “virtual police station” located on George Street across from city hall.

The new station, which will mostly rely on remote video technology to facilitate visitors’ communication with police, is expected to open in June 2020, said media relations Const. Sarah Patten.

“Innovation technology, without a doubt, will be woven in to what we’re doing because it’s a vehicle for enhancing public safety,” said Duraiappah.

He said he also supports a recent push by Mayor Patrick Brown and council to lobby the government for funding for CCTV cameras on Highways 410 and 403.

In addition to technological innovations, the chief also highlighted the importance of the force’s footprint in the community and having officers on the ground in the community.

“We’re undertaking a service delivery review of how we do policing: our footprint in the community, how officers are deployed,” he said. “That will include where buildings and facilities go in the region, which is a multi-year plan. It starts with just things like a substation or increasing foot beat officers in the downtown core.”

The police chief hopes programs — like a recently launched initiative utilizing external mental health support workers from the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Peel Dufferin — will help ease some of the pressure on the force’s limited resources and help keep more officers on the streets. Duraiappah said the crisis response teams are already showing positive results by freeing up officers who would otherwise be stuck waiting at hospitals.