The Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police is the head of the Ontario Provincial Police force in the Canadian province of Ontario.
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Pre-OPP Provincial Force Chiefs
In May 1875, the first head of a provincial police force was John Wilson Murray, who was a provincial constable appointed to the position of Detective for the Province of Ontario.
Murray was joined by two detectives under his command, Joseph Edwin Rogers in 1884 and William D. Greer in 1897.
Beginning of the OPP
Chief Detective Murray died in 1906 and in 1909, the Ontario Provincial Police Force was formally created consisting of 45 constables under the direction of Superintendent Joseph E. Rogers, who began as a detective under Murray in 1884.
Police Commissioner
In 1921, the force was reorganized as the OPP with the passage of the Provincial Police Force Act and Major General Harry M. Cawthra-Elliot was appointed to the newly created position of Commissioner. In 1922 Rogers was dismissed from the force by Williams thus ending his tenure as the head of the OPP.
Since 1939 most OPP Commissioners have mostly been police officers (Silk was a civilian) and some promoted within the OPP.