Charles O. Bick

Who is Charles O. Bick?

Charles O. Bick was the first chairman of the Metropolitan Toronto Board of Police Commissioners, the civilian body which oversaw the Metropolitan Toronto Police Force. He coined the service's slogan "To Serve and Protect".

An optometrist by profession, Bick was appointed to head the new body by Metropolitan Toronto Chairman Fred Gardiner in 1955 to oversee the amalgamation of the thirteen separate police forces that existed prior to the formation of Metropolitan Toronto. Bick initially met resistance as he was seen as an outsider with no background in policing and he clashed with police chief John Chisholm, particularly over questions of authority. Bick asserted that "under the Police Act, the control of the police department is in the hands of the commission," not the chief. Chisolm was unable to cope with the strain of managing the merging of thirteen separate police departments and committed suicide in High Park in 1958.

Bick remained chairman for 21 years until his retirement in 1977.

In order to meet the criteria to hold his office under the Ontario Police Act at the time he was appointed a magistrate and then a county court judge.

Bick advocated more training for police officers - Charles O. Bick College, the Toronto Police training facility, is named after him.