Criminal Justice System November 4, 2011
Class 8
Police
•Functions
•Selective enforcement
•Powers, duties, realities
•Review/accountability mechanisms
•Prosecutors
Police
•Distorted view of police
•Varies
•Agents of the state- protected by state and criticized by state
•Don’t criticize institution of police but on individual aberrations rather than
systemic
•Individual accountability and problems
•Media distorts police - job is seen as view of more violence, physical
•View police differently individually based on: ethnicity, where you live, previous
encounters etc
•Well paid, viewed as a profession now more so than before
•Prestige has gone up
•Filtering is a problem- talking about police in general ways -different ideological
views and different types of forces with higher standards
•Urban vs rural; regional vs federal
•Discretion
•Police portray selves as enforcers of law – selectively enforce
•Why is criminal law selectively enforced?
Functions of police
•Maintain law and order, and to protect
•Prevent crime
•Detection/arrest
•Charging responsibilities (often with the Crown)
•Controlling traffic
•Act as witnesses
•Give advice, assistance, support
Brannigan summarizes these as:
•Law enforcement
•Maintenance of order
•Social Services (75% of work)
•Not maintaining order but if someone dies at a house, police go, traffic
accident, disagreement on street etc
•Resources?
•What are police supposed to do in certain situations? Many choices
Selective Enforcement: how/why?
•Duty to uphold law always
•Individual accountability versus agency accountability
•Allocation of resources on practical grounds
•Police cant be everywhere
•Administrative choices of where to place officers
•White collar crimes – loss of money greater than street crime but resources
are miniscule compared to on the streets
•Allocation on policy grounds
•Marijuana, abortion- police: don’t enforce; no success in conviction
•Domestic violence wasn’t being taken seriously before, less discretion in that
case now- every case mandatory charges
•Differences in jurisdiction- one area wants something a crime, province
doesn’t
•What grounds is it justified
•Practical necessities – prohibition – selectively enforced
•Parliament knows not all laws can always be enforced
•Similar cases treated alike
•But unequal treatment between cases
•Individual level
•Dispatcher
•Most interaction public has with police is through dispatcher (80-90%)
•Well trained in most places
•Dispatcher makes decisions of discretion in every call
•Officer at scene
•Choices at the scene:
•Charge or not (invoking criminal law)
•Warn/lecture
•Remove person
•Back off right away (not a criminal matter)
•Try to mediate
•If charge:
•Arrest vs summons or appearance notice
•In light of 2 possibly conflicting principles: assume innocence vs
safety of society
•On what basis is this decided?
•Criminal Code: duty not to arrest without warrant in certain
circumstances (s. 495 & ss.494-497 generally)
•Arrest by any person:
•494 (1) Any one may arrest without warrant