SOC 1500 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: North-West Mounted Police, Anti-Social Behaviour, Environmental Crime
1 Jun 2018
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SOC 1500
CHAPTER 8
POLICE ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE
Introduction
• 1/3 of their time is spent doing crime fighting duties
• Remainder of time is spent I social service tasks
o Looking for lost children
o Investigating sudden deaths
▪ And notifying next of kin
o Responding to complaints
▪ Noisy parties, barking dogs
o Engaging in community policing activities
▪ Providing crime prevention information to citizens
▪ Consulting with police advisory boards
• Traffic enforcement accounts for a significant portion of their time
o Issuing tickets
o Responding to collisions
• Required to
o Appear in court to testify
o Attend training
• Police must attain a balance between enforcing the law and respecting the rights of the
individuals they encounter
o Offenders, victims, witnesses, or members of the public
• Mission creep
o Organizations assume more duties that were never envisioned by the founders of those
agencies
• Provinces have jurisdiction over policing and an established set of legal guidelines
o Ontario: Police Service Act
▪ Guiding principle is that police are responsible for ensuring the safety ad
security of all persons and property in the province while abiding by the
fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter
▪ Need for cooperation between police services and the communities they serve
is also highlighted
▪ Importance of being attentive to the needs of crime victims
▪ Respetig the ultiraial ad ultiultural ature of Otario’s populatios
▪ Acknowledgement that police services need to be representative by the
populations they serve
▪ Goals of a healthy and mutually beneficial relationship between the public and
the police
• Easy to describe but difficult to achieve
• Often overlook their other duties
• Policing is slowly moving from reactive to proactive crime control strategies that are more likely
to involve the community and focus on crime prevention
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• Front-line officers
o Officers who occupy front-line policing positions (up to the rake of sergeant) and do not
have executive authority
Four Eras of Canadian Policing
• Demographic shifts change the way that policing was carried out
• Most of Canadian history
o Policing was undertaken by officers working in small-town agencies with fewer than 10
officers
• Big city police department or large regional, provincial, and federal services is now the norm
• Stand-alone police services
o Police services that are typically small and are not part of a larger police organization
• Pre-Modern Era
o Prior to 1820
o Indigenous people have developed customary justice systems to resolve disputes and
respond to wrongdoings
o Restorative approach
o Behaiours ere otrolled ad regulates through shaig, ostrais, ad
opesatio for a iti’s loss
o Some wrongdoers were physically punished or executed, and others were banished
from the community
o Military was responsible for maintaining order in first Canadian settlements
o Royal Newfoundland Constabulary
▪ Claims to be the oldest police service in Canada
• Political Era
o 1820-1940
o Crimes of the rich and politically powerful were overlooked, and the poor and members
of minority groups were over-policed
o Over-policed
▪ Members of a social group of neighbourhood are treated suspiciously, watched,
stopped, searched, questioned, or otherwise negatively paid attention to by the
police by virtue of being members of that group
o Police officers were treated unfairly and were sometimes fired for enforcing the law
▪ Many officers working in small-town police departments suffered from low
morale and rapid turnover
• Officers would not stay in these jobs for long periods of time
▪ Police need to be independent of inappropriate political interference in order to
have trust and confidence of the public
o Political interference
▪ Inappropriate use of political authority to influence police operations
o Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)
▪ Rural police force
▪ Patrolled Quebec countryside
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▪ Police force that emphasized mounted patrols and was a model for early
Canadian police services
o North-West Mounted Police (NWMP)
▪ Response to lawlessness in the North-West Territories and to reinforce
Canadian sovereignty in that region
▪ Organization became Royal North-West Mounted Police in 1904 and the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police in 1920
o Working officers were recruited locally and were poorly trained, overworked, lacked job
seurit, orkers’ opesatio, or pensions
o Long hours with few benefits, arrests were rare and mostly responding to minor
offences
o Mouted polie’s priar goal as to esure soereigt rather tha aitaiig order
or fighting crime
o Sovereignty
▪ A atio’s lai o its territor
o Winnipeg General Strike
▪ Occurred after WW1
▪ Marked by high unemployment and bankruptcies
o On-to-Ottawa Trek
▪ During the Great Depression
▪ Protesting joblessness and poor working conditions
o Roert Peel’s 9 Priiples of Poliig
▪ Prevent crime and disorder
▪ Recognize always the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is
independent on public approval of their existence, actions, and behaviours, and
on their ability to secure and maintain public respect
▪ Recognize always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the
public means also the securing of the willing cooperation of the public in the
task of securing observance of the law
▪ 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
▪ To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion, but by7
constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete
independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the
substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and
friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social
standing by ready exercise of courtesy and good humour; and by ready offering
of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life
▪ 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 restore order; and to use only the minimum degree
of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a
police objective
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Introduction: 1/3 of their time is spent doing crime fighting duties, remainder of time is spent i social service tasks, looking for lost children. Inappropriate use of political authority to influence police operations: royal irish constabulary (ric, rural police force, patrolled quebec countryside, police force that emphasized mounted patrols and was a model for early. Canadian police services: north-west mounted police (nwmp, response to lawlessness in the north-west territories and to reinforce. Canadian sovereignty in that region: organization became royal north-west mounted police in 1904 and the royal. Role of police in canada: mission statement summarizes the goals of the organization, protection of the public, emphasis on forming partnerships with communities, provincial legislation, 5 core roles for police agencies in that province, crime prevention. Law enforcement: assistance to victims of crime, public order and maintenance, emergency response. Law enforcement: disagreement on how the police respond to minor acts of incivility or antisocial behaviour.
