SOC 1500 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Authoritarianism, Homicide, Wage War
1 Jun 2018
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Chapter 6 – Police Activities, Operations, and Challenges
Introduction
• police make mistakes in judgement, example in 2008 a 911 call was made with reports of gun
shots, a ouple polie offiers respoded to the all goig to the hoe ut did’t get out of
their cars to investigate. Later someone visited the home and found one person dead and one
injured from a gunshot wound who died on the way to the hospital. There has since been
lawsuits against the police officers and changes have been made as to how police have to
respond to calls
• our feelings towards government organizations are becoming less positive, we are generally less
trusting and forgiving
• Robertson identifies 2 issues with policing; the context in which the police operate and police
activities
• Police militarization: occurs when police services use military equipment, tactics, and training as
regular methods to police civilians
• Police subculture: set of informal rules and expectations that shape police attitudes, values, and
behaviors
• Because of their role as law enforcers the police often feel isolated from civilians and this leads
to a strong occupational culture
• Strong subculture is good for mutual support and positive values but can be bad for change and
police can try to cover up the misdeeds of other officers
Police Allocation
• 1/3 of adults report to coming in contact with police each year
• 3 main operational roles:
• operations: includes officers involved in patrol, traffic enforcement, and criminal
investigation, as well as specialized duties such as crime prevention, school resource
officers, and community policing
• administration: includes officers who manage the day to day operations of the agency
and oversee units such as human resources, budgeting, and professional standards
• auxiliary service: include personnel involved in communications, preserving evidence,
keeping records, and detention
• the roles that officers play are shaped by their organization; large police organizations are
complex and employ thousands, activities are overseen by police and civilian administrators,
small police organizations can potentially have one person for overseeing activities
• administrative and auxiliary roles increase with the size of the organization
• auxiliary and administrative officers are not responsible for maintaining the peace, responding
to crimes, patrolling the highways, handling calls
Police Chain of Command and Police Officer Ranks
• paramilitary organizations: organized along military lines and have a chain of command where
lines of authority are clearly defined by the organizations
• chain of command: the lines of authority in a police organization, which are clearly defined and
range from a constable (on the bottom of the pyramid) to the chief or commissioner (at the top)
• sworn officers: police officers with the legal authority to arrest and use force (as opposed to
peace officers who have less legal authority)
• most Canadian officers are called constables or officers; they are supervised by corporals,
sergeants, inspectors, superintendents, and chiefs
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• the RCMP used the term members for sworn officers
• job titles vary by police service and the ranks are;
• police chief/commissioner
• deputy chief/commissioner
• superintendent
• inspector
• sergeant
• corporal
• detective/investigator
• constable/officer
• special constable (cadet, peace officer, community service officer)
• with promotion comes more people to supervise and more responsibilities
• some people are promoted from constable within the first five years, some people
believe this is too little experience to make the best decisions
Operational Activities
• Patrol: the backbone of policing, 2/3 of officers are engaged in this
• Patrol activities are mostly made up of public calls (including 911)
• These public calls can sometimes take up an entire shift, this results in officers not being
able to take to preventative actions or investigating things fully
• Patrol officers will sometimes bac up other officers in dangerous or confrontational
situations like probation officers or child protective services
• Traffic: help to reduce the number of collisions, hand out tickets to violators, ensure the orderly
flow of traffic around collisions or construction zones, and arrest dangerous and impaired
drivers
• Some do specialized work in accident reconstruction
• Also include highway traffic officers and transportation enforcement officers who deal
with more commercial vehicles
• over half of fatalities occur on rural roads
• criminal investigation: deal with sexual assault, child exploitation, homicide
• accounts for 10-15% of officers in municipal departments
• smaller organizations can call on help from larger agencies to deal with these sorts of
problems
• drug suppression: stopping the use, selling, and production of illegal drugs
• 70% of Canadians support loosening the charges for marijuana, more support
decriminalizing it
• demand for drugs is fulfilled by trafficking, this leads to other crimes such as organized
crime
• some of these officers take on undercover roles
• undercover roles: officers carry out investigations in a covert manner that can involve
immersing the officers into criminal worlds
• scholars say Canadians wage war against the Blacks and over police them, a growing
amount of blacks receive criminal records for the possession of drugs and being placed
in custody, this reduces trust and confidence in the police and makes it more difficult to
get community participation in investigations
• organized crime and gangs: fight organizations that are involved in illicit activity where they can
make a profit, including drug production and distribution, cyberbullying, smuggling cigarettes
and firearms, and human trafficking
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• the criminal intelligence service Canada estimates that there are over 670 organized
crime groups active in Canada; they predict this poses a long-term threat to institutions,
economy, quality of life, and society
• police services share information with federal, provincial, and municipal officers to carry
out investigations on organized crime offenders
• most municipal police departments attack gang crime and share information with the
justice system (correctional officials and prosecutors)
• problem with dealing with organizational crime is that it is usually international so
Canadian police services can only do so much which out other country participation
• specialized operations: deal with complex and dangerous situations includes all emergency
response units;
• special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams/emergency response teams: a group of
officers who receive specialized training and have access to military style weapons to
confront armed and/or dangerous suspects
• automatic fire arms and armoured vehicles used for high-risk situations like
confrontations with armed offenders, barricaded homes, large scale protests, hostage
situations
• this also includes bomb squads: respond to incidents of unexploded bombs
• canine officers: officers who are partnered with dogs to engage in patrol activities,
detect drugs or explosives, and track suspects or escaped prisoners
• aviation units: officers use fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters for traffic enforcement
(like vehicle pursuits), transporting prisoners, and providing information to officers on
the ground
• marine units: officers are deployed in boats to patrol waterfront areas and harbours
including conducting search and rescue activities, promoting water safety, and engaging
in crime prevention
• specialized unit are also deployed by federal and provincial levels of policing, the RCMP
patrol the parliament buildings
• executive protection: protection provided by police officers to the prime minister, the
governor general of Canada, provincial premiers, mayors of large cities, and visiting
dignitaries
• crime prevention: small percentage of officers carry out these duties, they support
neighbourhood watch programs, and deliver public education programs where they teach
strategies to reduce risks of victimization
• youth services: work with youth convicted of serious offences or are persistent offenders, some
work specifically with gang members and their families
• school resource officers: officers placed on a part-time or full-time basis in schools to
provide security, teach classes, act as positive role models, and build positive
relationships with students
• deliver anti-crime and anti-drug programs to students
• community policing: place police stations in high-crime areas in order to have a visible presence,
large police services have programs that reach out to specific ethnocentric groups
• these programs are important because one quarter of Canadians are members of visible
minority groups or are of aboriginal decent
• many members of ethnocultural groups have had negative interactions with police in
their homeland
• these programs are intended to build bridges with these groups
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