North Bay’s new police chief brings experience from Woodstock and London

The search for North Bay’s next top cop is over. After a 30-year policing career in London and Woodstock, Daryl Longworth has been named North Bay’s new chief of police.

Longworth was introduced by the police service’s board Tuesday morning.

“This is a great police service. We have a wonderful police service here with a great reputation throughout the province,” Longworth told reporters.

“This is a great community I wanted to come to.”

Outgoing police chief Scott Tod is retiring at the end of March. The police service’s board started the hiring process for a new chief in late November 2023.

“We had 21 applications for the chief’s position,” said North Bay Mayor and board member Peter Chirico.

“It was a fulsome search that went right across Canada.”

Longworth was deputy chief of the Woodstock Police Service for six years before moving west to take on the deputy role for the London Police Service for four years.

Longworth is replacing outgoing police chief Scott Tod, who is retiring at the end of March. The police service’s board started the hiring process for a new chief in late November 2023. (Eric Taschner/CTV News)

He then had the opportunity to assume the top position back in Woodstock, which he accepted in 2019.

“My first few steps are going to be to listen. The advantage I have of coming here as a newcomer is I have the ability to ask questions, a lot of questions because it’s going to take me a while to figure out how things are done here,” he said.

Longworth briefly retired from the Woodstock police in the fall of 2022, but decided to come back after talking with his wife and family.

Some of the challenges he sees in North Bay are not unlike challenges he’s seen before: drug abuse, homelessness and social disorder.

“We have to be compassionate in our response to some of these people who are struggling,” Longworth said.

“By virtue of no other options available to them, they’re resorting to crime. At the same time we have to hold them accountable … We need our full justice and system to do a wraparound and embrace what we at the front-line policing level are doing by trying to bring these people to courts.”

Chirico said the board is “drawing on the experience” Longworth brings to the table to better help community policing.

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“We look forward to his insight from the southern Ontario perspective and he’s been involved with the Canadian Chiefs of Police Association,” said Chirico.

A graduate of the FBI National Academy and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Longworth has committed himself between three to five years in the role.

He first official day as chief is March 25.