Fredericton gets new police chief
City council appoints familiar face to position of commanding officer of capital’s cops
Gary Forward is coming back to Fredericton.
The capital’s city council, in a news release issued Wednesday afternoon, announced it had appointed Forward, a former inspector with the Fredericton Police Force, as the new chief of police.
The move comes on the heels of Chief Martin Gaudet’s announcement last month that he was retiring after two years as Fredericton’s top cop. His retirement is effective Thursday.
Forward’s acceptance of the position will leave another New Brunswick community searching for a new chief, as he was serving as the chief of the Woodstock Town Police beginning in 2019 until this new phase in his long career in policing.
The release said Forward will begin his duties as Fredericton’s chief Sept. 9.
Forward started his 35-year career in policing with the Fredericton Police Force in 1989, starting as a constable and rising through the ranks to become an inspector in 2007.
He has worked in the RCMP’s J Division headquarters in New Brunswick in the past, and after his initial retirement from Fredericton force, he headed up the provincial Department of Justice and Public Safety’s contraband enforcement unit until it was dissolved in 2019.
“We welcome Chief Forward back to the Fredericton Police Force,” Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers said in the release.
“His experience and expertise in complex policing issues and his commitment to community policing will be instrumental as we continue to grow and develop a modern police force that serves and protects our beautiful city.”
The city conducted a national search for its new police chief this summer, the release said, noting it had hired KRBS, an executive search and human-resources consulting firm, to facilitate the process.
Forward is currently the president of the New Brunswick Association of Chiefs of Police, and he sits on the board of directors for the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
Don MacPherson can be reached at ftonindependent@gmail.com.