The Rotary Club was delighted that Police Chief Andy McGrogan made it to the meeting today and spoke about some of the success's and challenges facing both the Police Service and the Medicine Hat Community at large. Chief McGrogan was introduced by Rotarian Bruce Shepard, and welcomed to the meeting.
Chief McGrogan began his career with the Medicine Hat Police Service in November of 1980, and has a wide variety of roles from patrolman up to the position of Chief, to which he was appointed in November of 2008. He has also been very active in the community, with a role for 6 years on the board of the Medicine Hat Women's Shelter and as the Alberta representative on the Canadian Chief of Police Council.
Andy spoke of the organization he is in charge of, 113 Police officers and a total staff of 150 including the civilians. He wanted to express his thanks to the community at large, for the general support that his officers receive in their daily duties, and the funding received through City Council.
Chief McGrogan spoke about the changes that have occurred in Policing through his career, and about several important issues. The first was the legalization of Cannabis, which he termed a "non-event" so far although he did mention that technology to prove impairment is still not readily available. He also mentioned with the introduction of "edibles" in the next year, there may be more issues coming forward.
He spoke about the opioid crisis, and about the bigger issue facing the community from methamphetamine. "Meth" is highly addictive and introduces a great deal of social disruption to the community in general. It has a cumulative effect on all the social services, from police to emergency response personnel to the social service community.
Andy answered a number of questions and was thanked by President Margie Booyens.
