National

Ex-top cop steps down from Vic board roles

By AAP Newswire

Aug 12, 2022

Former Victoria Police commissioner Ken Lay. — Ken Lay will step down from his Victorian public ambulance and mental health board positions. -AAP Image

Former Victoria Police boss Ken Lay will step down from his public ambulance and mental health board positions as he continues to work on identifying a site for a second supervised injecting room.

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The long-serving public sector leader will finish up as chairman of the Forensicare and Ambulance Victoria boards on August 25.

Mr Lay spent 41 years in the state's police force and was appointed its chief commissioner in 2011, before stepping down in early 2015 to support his wife, Chris, through illness.

He is a well-known advocate for family violence prevention and also briefly served as chairman of Bushfire Recovery Victoria, visiting devastated communities in 2020 following the Black Summer fires.

"On behalf of the government, I would like to thank Mr Lay for his dedicated service to the Victorian community and I wish him and his family all the best," Premier Daniel Andrews said in a statement on Friday.

Mr Lay will continue his work on a report to determine the best location for a medically supervised injecting room in Melbourne's city centre.

"Shifting patterns of drug harms in the CBD have prompted an extension of Mr Lay's work which is expected to be completed by early next year," Mr Andrews said.

The premier flagged earlier this week that a decision was unlikely to be finalised before the November 26 state election.

By AAP Newswire

Australian Associated Press