12/09/2025
Dennis introduced tonight’s guest speaker Police Chief Thai Truong. Thai was appointed London Chief of Police on June 1, 2023. He joins the London Police Service from York Regional Police with more than two decades of policing experience, having worked in all four branches of York Regional Police: Support, Investigations, Administrative, and Operations. He has extensive investigative and specialized expertise in leading various units including organized crime and drug enforcement, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, homicide, internet child exploitation and special victims’ units. When he joined the London Police Force, it had a poor statistical record and was in the top 5 cities in Canada for number of crimes annually with response times high & morale at all time lows. It was time to invest in police services and modernize its operations. His 4 year plan & budget was approved and since it’s introduction response time have improved significantly, especially Code 1 which are the most serious. Code 3 calls which are the least serious, but still important have gone from 8 days to 2 days. Shooting were down 48% in 2024, but have increased in 2025 primarily due to a small group of repeat criminals. The downtown situation with the homeless and drug use is really a social problem, not a policing issue. The police have augmented the patrols downtown and have added nurses to patrols and are now more engaged with the homeless and drug users. There were lots of questions from the group which Thai happily answered this evening. Dennis thanked Chief Truong and presented him with a certificate about a donation to be made towards polio eradication.