Executive Leadership

On August 28, 2023, Dwayne Lakusta became the first Chief of Police for the Grande Prairie Police Service. Chief Lakusta came to the Grande Prairie Police Service as an accomplished and influential leader in the field of public safety with close to 30 years of progressive law enforcement experience.

Chief Lakusta began his policing career in 1995 as a patrol constable for the Edmonton Police Service. Over the course of his 26 years with the Edmonton Police Service, he held various positions, including working in the Drug Undercover Street Team, Project KARE, Organized Crime Branch, Homicide Section, Professional Standards and Targeted Offender Section. He also served as the Inspector of West Division Patrol and was seconded to ALERT as their Superintendent-Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to his appointment as Police Chief, Chief Lakusta was serving as the Executive Director of Law Enforcement and Police Oversight for the Government of Alberta's Public Safety and Emergency Services Ministry. In this role, he focused on ensuring adequate and effective levels of policing across the province by managing the RCMP Provincial Police Service Agreement and the RCMP Municipal Policing Service Agreement. Chief Lakusta also played a crucial role in police oversight and setting policing standards for all law enforcement agencies in the province.

As the inaugural Chief of Police for the new Grande Prairie Police Service, Dwayne Lakusta brings with him a motivation to affect change for the unique needs of the community. His vision is to collaborate with stakeholders to build an innovative and community-focused police service that engages with the public, establishing an exceptional public safety organization for the residents of Grande Prairie.

Chief Lakusta is married and spends much of his free time coaching his daughter’s local sports teams. His family supports his dedication to building the Grande Prairie Police Service.

Taking lead on the administrative operations for the Grande Prairie Police Service is Executive Director Darrin Balanik. Balanik joins GPPS following a 32-year career with Edmonton Police Service, primarily working in frontline operations. He spent the past two years on secondment to the Government of Alberta’s Public Safety and Emergency Services Ministry as a special advisor on policing to the Alberta Provincial Police Service Secretariat.

Balanik brings a solid theoretical and operation background in frontline policing and community partnerships, emergency response command and management, human resources development, employee relations and complaints resolution, executive leadership and communication, and judicial procedures and partnerships. He also has experience as a sessional instructor and field placement coordinator for the Police and Investigation Studies Program at MacEwan University.

At GPPS, Balanik is a strategic advisor, taking the lead on the HR and transition plans and developing policies and procedures. Having grown up in a family of public servants, he says he sees working to serve the people in his community and noble, and within policing the best means to ultimately achieve citizen satisfaction through strong public safety and public confidence in those entrusted to protect them.

Outside of work, Balanik is a music lover who is methodical in completing yard work, landscaping projects, and flowerbed and lawn maintenance. He loves camping in provincial and national parks, especially Jasper National Park, and enjoys boating and yard work, along with following the CFL. Balanik is married to his wife Leanne and has a 23-year-old daughter Madison. He originally hails from rural Saskatchewan and mainly grew up in rural Alberta.

Serving as Superintendent in charge of the Police Operations Division for the Grande Prairie Police Service is John Respet. Superintendent Respet’s may be a familiar name to some, having worked for the RCMP in Grande Prairie starting in 2013 as the detachment’s plain clothes commander.

He also served as District Advisory NCO and the commissioned Operations Officer before being transferred to Edmonton to spend two years as the Director of CISA (Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta) before retiring as the Officer in Charge of the Integrated Internet Child Exploitation Unit in ALERT. He then retired from the RCMP and served as a Director with the Government of Alberta in charge of Contract Policing and Policing Oversight before joining GPPS in October.

Superintendent Respet's extensive law enforcement career spans more than three decades, beginning with a Diploma in Law Enforcement and taking role of Commercial Enforcement Officer with Alberta Transportation in Whitecourt in 1992. Superintendent Respet joined the RCMP in 1995, working General Duty in Grande Cache and Stony Plain and serving plainclothes duties in Project KARE, the task force investigating high-risk missing and murdered sex trade workers in the Edmonton area, and the Serious Crimes Branch, including Major Crimes, and was integral to the creation of the modern-day version of the RCMP’s Missing Persons Unit.

Having been born in Croatia, Superintendent Respet is bilingual and has had opportunities to provide translation services for national, provincial, and local investigation. With his experience in the community and the appeal of building a brand-new municipal police service model, Superintendent Respet says it was an easy decision to pursue this role.

He shares a passion for policing with his wife of more than 36 years, who has 27 years of experience as an RCMP Inspector in Edmonton. They have two sons, the youngest of which is pursuing a law enforcement career with the hope of joining GPPS, and the eldest an accomplished musician. Superintendent Respet is also an avid runner, golfer, and world traveller.

Heading up the Corporate Services & Community Support Division of the Grande Prairie Police Service is Superintendent Greg Redl. Redl comes to GPPS following a 21-year career with the RCMP, finishing in the City of Grande Prairie as an Inspector.

Between 2002 and 2023, Superintendent Redl was posted to High Prairie, AB, Calgary, AB, Cambridge Bay, NU, Fort St. James, B.C., Leaf Rapids, MB, Port Hawkesbury, N.S., and Airdrie, AB, before moving to Grande Prairie. Over that time, he has been honoured with numerous bravery and lifesaving awards and medals, including a bronze medal for bravery from the Royal Canadian Humane Association and a Commissioner's Commendation for Bravery from the RCMP.

Policing has been a part of Superintendent Redl’s entire life, as his father was a police officer, and he wanted the opportunity to make a positive impact on a community in the same way. He has now joined GPPS for the challenge of creating a new police service that is well trained and innovative.

Outside of work, Superintendent Redl enjoys experimenting with new technologies and software, as well as using drones and playing videos games with his brothers. He has a wife and two children, who are all ready to stay in one place for a while.