After 30 years, voice of Central Region OPP calls it a career

A voice many of our listeners will have become familiar with is retiring.

Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Peter Leon is calling it a career after 30 years. Leon is the Central Region OPP’s Media Relations Coordinator. In that position, Leon did many interviews over the years with various Moose stations on a variety of topics.

Sgt. Leon says he’ll be taking many fond memories with his odds and ends in a bankers box. “It was tough saying goodbye on Periscope,” he admits. “I got a little emotional.”

The fact that he said a public goodbye on the video platform shows just how comfortable Leon has become with technology as part of his trade over the years. He moved into his current role in 2009 but had always acted as a point of contact through his various postings around the province.

The OPP uses many different methods of reaching the public with its messaging, something Leon is proud of having helped bring to the next level. “I think technology helped us get the message out there in a real positive kind of way,” says Leon. “Technology enhances how we do modern day policing.”

When asked about a real “move the needle moment” involving communications and the public, he points to the Simcoe County Case Files as an example of the police working with the residents of Ontario to solve cold case murders.

“We profiled four unsolved homicide investigations that had happened, in one case 26 years previously,” he explains. “Within ten months and sixteen days, we had a person charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three weeks later a second person charged with accessory after the fact. “I think social media and mainstream media help us do our job.”

Variety on the job is what kept him going through the three decades he confirms.  “You know what, no two days were ever the same,” Leon says. “You never knew from one moment to the next what the next challenge was going to be.”

Leon says everything he did had an underlying theme. “It comes down to one key component, keeping the public safe,” he says. “And that is what law enforcement does day in and day out since the beginning of time.”

 

Congratulations @OPP_CR Community Services Coordinator Sgt. Peter Leon on your well-deserved retirement after over 30 dedicated years of service and helping strengthen media relations across #Ontario #HappyRetirement pic.twitter.com/UcM3HRRPkr

— JVN (Vince) Hawkes (@OPPCommHawkes) September 14, 2018