The Collingwood/Blue Mountains OPP is planning for a change of leadership as of July 19.
Insp. Loris Licharson has been named interim detachment commander of the Collingwood and Blue Mountains OPP, taking the reins from Insp. Mary Shannon, who has served as detachment commander for five years.
“I’m excited about my next challenge. I’m really excited about a fresh set of eyes coming in here,” Shannon told CollingwoodToday.ca this week.
“When I arrived here five years ago, I had some very concrete ideas about things I wanted to implement. One of my first priorities was the formation of the Mental Health Response Unit,” she said.
The Mental Health Response Unit consists of an OPP officer and a crisis worker who ride together in an unmarked car for deployed or immediate response to people who are in a mental health crisis. The unit was established at the local OPP detachment in 2016.
“The team that works here, they’re constantly coming to me with creative ideas and new ideas that can enhance our community. Looking back on this past year, we as a community (both Collingwood and the Blue Mountains) received $695,000 in grant funding,” said Shannon, pointing to the mobile victim response unit and the guns and gangs grant as examples.
“That’s significant. Those are funds that will enhance safety initiatives in both communities,” she said. “Those are things I’m very proud of.”
Shannon will be moving on to OPP’s General Headquarters in Orillia into the role of commander of community and safety services. One of the tasks for her bureau is overseeing auxiliary units.
“A big part of that role is the development of initiatives that support front-line,” she said. “It’s very exciting for me.”
Licharson will be coming to Collingwood from the OPP’s Huronia West detachment, and lives on the west side of Wasaga Beach.
He put himself through university by joining the Canadian Armed Forces through the primary reserve, and found his way to policing through that avenue.
“I had been looking at going into the military as my goal. As I spent more time there, I had friends going into the OPP. I went on some ride-alongs and my goals started to change,” said Licharson. “I’ve always believed in duty to community, to country and family. Policing seems like an awesome opportunity to be able to make change and have an impact.”
Lichardson has spent some of his career working in the east region at the Loyalist detachment, and has worked in the north-west region in Sioux-Lookout as part of the crime unit.
He worked at the Huronia-West detachment for seven years, as a shift sergeant and then an operations manager. He spent the last three years in the Indigenous policing bureau through the provincial operations centre.
“I spent a lot of time in a fly-in region in Indigenous communities,” he said. “The isolation in remote, northern communities... backup can be a significant distance away. There’s a huge emphasis (there) on getting to know the people and communities and building those relationships because it will affect how you can do your job.”
Licharson says his first priority in his new role is to get to know the detachment, the members of the two police service boards, leadership and people in town.
“It’s a little bit like going home and seeing old friends, and also some new ones,” he said. “There’s big shoes to fill here. I know this detachment is an outstanding detachment. We worked together often when I was in Huronia West. I’m really looking forward to coming back to field operations close to home.”
While Shannon says she looks back fondly on the time she spent at the Collingwood detachment, she expects the change of command to be an easy one.
“I expect it to go smoothly because we have an amazing group here of uniform and civilian members that are just so committed to the community. It’s a little bittersweet for me,” said Shannon.
