According to the union management, it’s a tough time to be a police officer in Saint John.
The Saint John Police Association hosting a news conference to address word that Police Chief John Bates will retire next spring.
Dean Secord says they have never witnessed the undermining of a chief like they are seeing now and he says morale is at the lowest point ever in the 169 year history of the Saint John Police Force.
Secord says Mayor Don Darling has rendered the Saint John Police Commission dysfunctional and is attempting to treat the police as another city department under his control.
He says the reason the word “commission” was added to the legislation in the Police Act to ensure policing was kept at arm’s length from the political agendas and baggage of councils.
Without any policing experience, the Saint John Police Association says the Mayor and the majority of council cut the police budget by $1.25 million.
The union also maintains that a deal on a contract was reached after 31 meetings between police managment and the assocation but that deal was rejected by the Police Commission.
The Saint John Police Assocation plan to ask the Public Safety minister to intervene as they believe the Mayor wants a police chief he can control and to ignore the Police Act.
