But John Sewell, a former mayor of Toronto and now a member of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, doesn’t understand why police won’t look even further outside their own culture for leadership candidates.

“The chief of police should be a really good manager,” Sewell said. “The issue is not what you know about policing, it’s what you know about management.”

He said a good manager makes the people below him want to come to work every day, and be creative.

“Police aren’t creative. They do the same thing over and over again.”

Glenn De Caire, currently a staff superintendent with the Toronto Police Service, was introduced as the new Hamilton Police chief at a press conference on November 20. He’ll begin his new role on December 9.

Sewell thinks Hamilton’s decision to look outside, rather than promoting one of the four internal candidates who applied, should be mandated to all police services.