After 22 straight years with SPS, Jason Clarke named new deputy chief
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By: CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
For Jason Clarke, his hometown was always the plan.
“I’m a Stratford guy, born and raised in Stratford and lived here all my life,” Clarke said. “… For me it’s always been Stratford. I've loved Stratford my entire life and I love everything about it.”
Clarke, who has been with the Stratford Police Service for 22 years now, has been appointed the service’s new deputy chief, following an internal selection process that took nearly a year. Deputy Chief Gerry Foster retired in the summer of 2025.
Clarke brings extensive experience in operational and leadership roles across the organization, according to an announcement from the police services board. Most recently, he served as acting deputy chief for six months, sharing the role with Insp. Mark Taylor for the year. During that time, according to the board, he “demonstrated sound judgment, disciplined leadership and a consistent commitment to organizational excellence and public service.”
Clarke was interested in policing at a young age, looking up to local officers when he was a child. After graduating from the law and security program, as it was called then, he began his journey in policing. He got a job in corrections and was asked to interview for an officer position in Stratford shortly after, joining the service in 2004.
Things have changed in the industry a great deal in the last 22 years, according to him.
“The biggest change for policing for me is the oversight and just the public perception of police,” he said. “… There's always been oversight, which I think is very important, especially with all the power and opportunity that we have to affect people's lives in our daily work, but you know, it used to be if the police said something or asked you to move along, people just moved along, right? There wasn't much pushback, so that's really changed in policing, and I think for a good reason. I think policing really has to be transparent because the general public doesn't really know some of the rules that we're playing by.
“And then on the street for us right now, the mental health, addictions, and homelessness – you'll hear those three terms a lot anytime you're talking to police officers. That's something that's really come to the forefront in our communities now too, and we're spending a ton of time and resources with those types of calls for service versus criminal acts in our community. We're doing both, but we never ever spent the amount of time we're spending these days on those three issues in in the community.”
Stepping into the deputy role, Clarke is focused on those issues first and foremost, as well as making sure service members’ health and wellbeing are taken care of, and that they know the organization supports them now and in the future.
As deputy chief, the overall success of the service is his responsibility, as is the support of the chief’s and police service board’s vision and strategic plan (one that is currently being developed and will be released “shortly,” according to Clarke). Since Chief Paul Landers is serving in an interim role at the moment, and the board’s strategic plan is being developed, Clarke said his focus is galvanizing his peers as a team.
“Paul's a great team leader, and he's very, very instructive on us gathering each day to meet and talk about the service, what's going on, what needs to happen and how can we best support our membership so we have a healthy workforce here. There's really some great teamwork going on here right now.”