Lecture 7: Policing in Canada

Question 1

Explain what we mean by “police”

Answer 1

The activities of any individual or organization
acting legally on behalf of public or private
organizations or persons to maintain security
or social order.

Question 2

Define policing

Answer 2

The activities of any individual or organization acting legally on behalf of public or private organizations or persons to maintain security or social order.

Question 3

What are Sir Robert Peel’s Principles of
Policing…(7)

Answer 3

1. To prevent crime and disorder..
2. Dependent on public approval
3. Cooperation of the public
4. Absolute impartial service to law
5. Use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary
6. To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality
   to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public
   are the police
7. Absence of
   crime and disorder

Question 4

1. To prevent crime and disorder…..

Answer 4

To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by
military force and severity of legal punishment..

Question 5

2. Dependent on public approval…

Answer 5

To recognize always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and
duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and
behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.

Question 6

3. Cooperation of the public

Answer 6

To recognize always that the extent to which the cooperation of the public
can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of
physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives;

Question 7

4. Absolute impartial service to law

Answer 7

To seek and preserve public favor, not by pandering to public opinion, but by
constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to law

Question 8

5. Use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary

Answer 8

To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and
warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public cooperation to an
extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to
use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on
any particular occasion for achieving a police objective

Question 9

6. To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police

Answer 9

To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality
to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public
are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid
to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every
citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence

Question 10

7. Absence of
   crime and disorder

Answer 10

To recognize always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them

Question 11

Functions of the Uniformed Public Police in Canada - 1-4
1) Crime Control

Answer 11

Crime Control - less than 25% of police time example; responding to and investigating crimes, patrolling the streets arresting, catching criminals.

Question 12

What did Reiss find out in 1971 research..and what do these findings conclude?

Answer 12

That police processed calls from the public as “criminal matters”
in only 17% of cases

• He found that the most common element of the patrols he observed was that they do not involve the arrest of anyone.

These findings documented that the police are largely reactive, ie. they respond to calls from the community, rather than behaving proactively engaged in
fighting crime….87% of police work is citizen initiated, and rarely involves
situations which the police would have knowledge of, or
access to, without information from the community.

Question 13

2) Order Maintenance - 20% of police activity

Answer 13

Preventing
and controlling behaviour that disturbs the public peace, including quieting loud parties, begin present at parades,
demonstrations, responding to problems with neighbours,
baseball games and, to some extent, patrolling the streets.

Question 14

3) Administration/Court time - 50% of police activity

Answer 14

Including paper work…police are involved in producing all that information about
occurrences and reports of crimes to the police, in addition to all the paperwork involved in investigations, arrests and
charging and appearing in court.

Question 15

4) Calls for Service
17-50% of police activity

Answer 15

This is increasing true as “diversification” increases, ie. police step in to respond when other organizations and agencies cannot, often due to funding cuts. …illness, collapses, disputes, finding missing children

Question 16

How does structure of police impact crime control function on the public police?

Answer 16

Structure of police services emphasizes catching criminals and
deterring crime.

• Military/top-down organization (“war on crime”)
• Reliance on patrols to respond to emergencies
• Training has historically relied on physical strengths and abilities

Question 17

How does EVALUATION impact crime control function on the public police?

Answer 17

Evaluation of police services reflects crime control..
* Use of response times as a measure of efficiency

• Emphasis on crime statistics as primary measure of police
  effectiveness and efficiency (number of calls, number of
  reports, offences “cleared”, arrests, charges)

Question 18

What is discretion?

Answer 18

The power or right to decide or act according to one’s own judgment.

Question 19

Name all the factors that influence the exercise of police discretion

Answer 19

• Legislation and/or Policy (example; crackdowns, diversion, structure of individual police services may allow more/less
  enforcement of certain crimes)
• Seriousness of the incident
• Perceptions of the various actors and people involved
• Officer factors
• The police culture (of individual forces as well as more
  generally)

Question 20

Private Policing in Canada

Answer 20

There is massive growth of private policing personnel since
the 1980’s…

• There are more private police than public police officers in Canada (3-2 ratio)
• They can exercise force, perhaps deadly force - if they
  are licensed to do so by the province in which they
  are working

Question 21

Describe private vs public policing..

Answer 21

Public police typically protect public property and
spaces and act on behalf of the government and “society” to
enforce laws, and are publicly accountable. However Private Police/Security is generally limited to “mass
private property”, example - spaces which are privately
owned or operated but used extensively by the
public (eg. Malls, airports, sporting venues)

• in such cases, they act on behalf of their employer
  and not necessarily on behalf of the public

Question 22

Private Policing in Canada

Answer 22

Often public and private police forces work together,
further blurring the distinction.
* Lack of training and regulation of private security in Canada

Question 23

Two Worlds Colliding, the film, explain it.

Answer 23

This documentary is an inquiry into what came to be known as Saskatoon’s infamous “freezing deaths,” and the schism between a fearful, mistrustful Indigenous community and a police force harbouring a harrowing secret.

One frigid night in January 2000 Darrell Night, an Indigenous man was dumped by two police officers in -20° C temperatures in a barren field on the city outskirts. He survives the ordeal but is stunned to hear that the frozen body of another Indigenous man was discovered in the same area. Days later, another victim, also Native, is found. When Night comes forward with his story, he sets into motion a chain of events: a major RCMP investigation into several suspicious deaths, the conviction of the two constables who abandoned him and the reopening of an old case, leading to a judicial inquiry.