|
2004: Six
Toronto Police officers face corruption charges | This
story continues with evidence many more officers were involved
and Toronto police obstructed RCMP investigation | Fantino
| Ken Wood sues | See also Vancouver's criminal
cops | Robert Baltovich
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Steve Reeso
Deputy police chief to
leave the force for position at Magna
By KATIE ROOK Globe
and Mail, Jan 13, 2005
After 30 years of service,
Toronto Police's Deputy Chief Steven Reesor announced his retirement
yesterday.
The 51-year-old will join Magna
International, the Aurora-based car-parts giant, in April as
an executive.
Deputy Chief Reesor would not
comment on the new job, but he leaves behind a salary of more
than $150,000 and nine years experience as deputy chief.
He is best known for being
the lead homicide investigator in the 1990 slaying of Elizabeth
Bain, which led to the 1992 second-degree murder conviction and
life imprisonment of her boyfriend, Robert Baltovich.
In December, the Ontario Court
of Appeal granted Mr. Baltovich a new trial.
Deputy Chief Reesor rose quickly
through the ranks of the force, from a generalist constable in
1975 to a constable in the elite Special Weapons Team and Emergency
Task Force in 1978. By 1983, he was a detective constable and
in 1985 joined homicide as an inspector.
His appointment to deputy chief
at age 42 in 1995 made him the youngest at that rank in the history
of the force.
"I've enjoyed every minute
of the last 30 years working in policing, every job I've been
assigned to," Deputy Chief Reesor said in an interview last
night. "When I was in homicide, I had three separate cases
where we arrested people for murder where we did not have a body
and I found that quite a challenge to gather the evidence and
make sure we were able to prosecute successfully in most cases,
which is a difficult thing to do."
Deputy Chief Reesor, who has
an MBA from the University of Toronto, said the shift to Magna
is in keeping with his interest in business. Active in amateur
sports, he plays rugby and hockey and is a marathon runner. He
said he has no plans to slow down and his next role, which he
said he is not at liberty to discuss, will be "every bit
as demanding as what I've been doing."
In 1998, he was named in an
investigation concerning the private sale of a weapon. Nothing
criminal was ever alleged. He was disciplined for making a careless
transaction. After considerable press and inquiry, he was cleared
of any wrongdoing and reinstated as the head of gun and property
units.
The father of four will take
a few months off between his retirement from the force and starting
the job at Magna.
Deputy Chief Reesor offered
the following advice to young constables looking to climb the
ladder: "Policing is an interesting career. Come in every
day and do a hard day's work and enjoy what you're doing. Do
the best you can at what you're doing and if there is an opportunity,
take advantage of every opportunity that comes along."
Toronto Mayor David Miller
called Deputy Chief Reesor "thoroughly professional. He's
a very focused, bright, articulate police officer."
The mayor said he thinks the
two have played rugby against one another in the past, though
neither knew each other at the time. "I have to commend
him because he's still playing and I am not, but I was equally
as hard-nosed and determined as he was."
Deputy police chief leaving
for Magna job
Reesor following chief's departure
- New leadership due
by spring
CATHERINE PORTER, Toronto
Star, CITY HALL BUREAU, Jan. 13, 2005
The final member of the Toronto
police force's current upper management announced his impending
departure yesterday, signalling the eve of new leadership for
the force's 7,000 members.
Deputy Chief Steven Reesor
said he's decided to retire, take the force's full pension plan
and start a second career. He is taking an executive position
at Magna International in April.
Reesor had been among suspected
frontrunners to replace Chief Julian Fantino, whose contract
with the police services board ends in early March.
While Reesor said he had been
considering that option, an "extremely attractive opportunity"
at the auto-parts giant was offered that he couldn't turn down.
"This offer came up and
now's the time it was being offered. Who knows what would happen
in the chief's competition?" said Reesor, who at only 51
has already served 30 years with the force.
Fantino, who has worked closely
with Reesor for the past five years and considers him "very
loyal," described him as a detail man.
"He's a real problem-solver,"
the chief said. "It's going to be difficult to replace that
kind of experience, knowledge and intellect."
Reesor catapulted to the second-in-command
position about nine years ago when he was only 42, making him
the youngest deputy chief in the force's history.
He started his career at 21,
after dropping out of the undergraduate business program at York
University.
"I decided I didn't want
to work for a large corporation making them money," he said.
"I went through the (police) training and I never looked
back. I felt I was a fish in water."
He was quickly promoted through
the ranks, working as a special weapons constable in the emergency
task force, a division detective, a crack homicide detective,
a staff inspector of the force's internal audit division, and
finally, before being promoted to deputy chief, a staff inspector
of Etobicoke's 23 Division.
His recorded salary in 2003
was $187,000.
As a homicide detective, Reesor
led the team that sent Robert Baltovich to prison for life in
the 1990 death of University of Toronto student Elizabeth Bain.
The Ontario Appeal Court recently ordered a new trial of the
case after new evidence was provided.
In 1998, Reesor admitted to
selling a personal firearm through the force's gun unit to another
officer: an illegal offence for a police officer. He was "counselled"
by then chief David Boothby.
Around police headquarters
Reesor is considered astute, the force's best manager.
Those skills will be easily
translated to the corporate sector, Reesor said. As will his
MBA, which he managed to complete at night while working as a
homicide detective.
Toronto Police Services Board
chair Pam McConnell said the force will miss Reesor's leadership.
"I wish him all the best.
He's given the police service 30 years of his life. I think we
should say thank you."
Reesor follows both former
deputy chief Mike Boyd, who retired last November after 35 years
with the Toronto service and still hasn't been replaced, and
Fantino, who lost a bid for a new contract last summer.
The board has hired a professional
headhunter to help find Fantino's replacement by March 5.
Once Reesor leaves in April,
it will mark a new leadership phase for the force. But he doesn't
see that as a difficult transition.
"They've got a lot of
excellent people," Reesor said. "The police service
has continually had change over the years at the senior management
rank.... They don't rely on two to three people at the top."
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
