The Entire Policing System of Canada - Report Example

Policing The main objective of Canadian police is to provide a secure place for all Canadian people to stay happily and peacefully. The core policy of the Canadian police is to provide protection to people, ensure crime prevention and service, and work as intelligence also. Their strategy is based on following principles: leadership, communication with the government and people, reduction of crime, community policing and integrated policing. Their strategy based on national security as well as community policing to ensure that both internal and external peace and harmony is in place. (Royal Canadian Mounted police, 2010) 2. The entire policing system in Canada was changed after the 9/11 incident in USA. The Canadian government reviews the entire policing system and came up with few changes. The first major change that took place was reinvesting in the Canadian policing and security system from the government to ensure more security for the countrymen. Apart from that, the Canadian government also increased the power of the police in terms of taking decision regarding national security, review the public security system by giving more power to police, implementing and encouraging the concept of community policing, regularly reviewing the activity of police by different methods such as risky policing and policing risk, Surveillance, Intelligence lead policing, integrated policing, rationalizing the entire policing system etc. (Murphy, nd, pp. 16-20). 3. The “Policing Assemblage” signifies the units and bodies which are engaged in policing. It involves a complex of different agencies connected with nodes. The different agencies may or may not perform consistently and might even be opposing. The different parts of the web of policing form a network. Interpol is a component of global policing assemblage. Global policing assemblage is more dynamic than the police cooperation mechanism across the world (Garriott, 253-54). 4. As per orthodox view of opposition to the new police, the body which is supposed to prevent crime and maintain order should deal with social problems resulting from the fast developing cities. Here the new police concept is criticized for “ignoring the rationality of working-class opposition to the new police.” Again revisionist accounts like that of Storch says that the increase and strengthening of police can be justified by the cry of the wealthy middle classes for an agent who can protect their properties. In this term the actual purpose of police is to serve and protect the working class who are in reality deprived (Wright, 2012, p.9). 5. Sir Robert Peel is referred to as the founder of modern policing concept. He in his review mentioned that police should only do their duties depending upon the public approval of police actions. They must have the willingness to co-operate with public in deliberate observation of the law and to ensure that respect of the common people is in place. The co-operation of the public can be ensured by minimal use of physical force. It is very clear that in modern age police in any country can gain public support not by creating the favorable opinion among public but by representing complete impartial provision to the law. They have to ensure that they are also like common man and the only objective that they have is to give full-time care to responsibilities which are mandatory on every resident in the welfares of community and their existence. 6. The constitutional act 1867 is generally used to discuss the criminal law of Canada. Under this law there is a power to the province also to use the police force to main the law and order of the country. Almost all the criminal laws in Canada are codified under Criminal Coe of Canada. (Levinson, 2002, p.149). The structure of Canadian police is entirely based on authority of the RCMP Act. According to this law, the Canadian police department is being headed by the Commissioner under the rules and guidance of the Minister of Public Safety Canada. All the law that governed the action of the police force is being based on the Constitution Act, 1867 under subsection Criminal Law. Management of justice inside the provinces, together with application of the Criminal Code, is an integral part of the power and responsibility passed on to the provincial governments and this entire act is being governed under the constitutional act. So although the structure is not directly related to constitutional act, 1867 but the function is governed by that act. (Royal Canadian Mountain Police, 2013) 7. Police is a group of people who are responsible to maintain the law and order in different states and province of any country. Police as a group is always responsible for keep an eye on the internal security, internal law and order maintenance, controlling local violence and maintaining the peace in the city or state or province. (Villiers, 2009, pp. 81-82) On the other hand policing can be defined as different role played by the police to maintain the peace and harmony in the society. The interrogation, communicate higher authority about the possibility of crime scenario, controlling law and order, keep in check on the antisocial behaviors all this comes under the policing activity. In a broad sciences police is a special group of people who are responsible to maintain law and order with necessary use of their powers and policing is the role played by them to complete their duties. (Villiers, 2009, pp. 15-16) 8. Private policing at present is one of the booming industries of the present world. In order to keep pace with the budget scratch, forces everywhere in the world are looking for cutting down the expenses as asked by the Government, and therefore outsourcing the job of policing and other works to the private sector in order to balance the books. But the problem is that, in the private policing the chances of less care for the accused is very high as the incident of Sharon McLaughlin, 32 years old guy clearly proved in 2010. Officers found lots of used needles and drug equipment in the course of a strip search, but there was no mention about her addiction in the initial risk assessment as the officer thought this is to be a low risk incident as the prisoner did not complain about her health. So private policing therefore reduces the level of security of the prisoner in this kind of situation which is not the case if the case is under normal police. (Peachey & Lakhani, 2012) 9. These are playing a key role in the criminal investigation and also provide a rapid action against any kind of local violence. But these two functions are the overview of the policing activities. But apart from those policing activities, some other strategies associated with the policing activities that are needed to be incorporated with those two strategies are the selection of police and crime officers to hold police forces together and reinforce the connection between the police and the public. Creating of a National Crime Agency to direct the fight against controlled crime and strengthen the border security of the country. Another key part one has to associate with the policing system is to phasing out the National Policing Improvement Agency. Apart from that, this book also must incorporate Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act in the UK which analyze the central bureaucracy for the police, analyze different accountability that UK police have to perform to maintain social stability. (Crime and Policing, 2013) 10. The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), a Canadian police force set up in 1873, joined with Dominion Police, a federal police force with jurisdiction over North Canada  in 1920 and came to be known as Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with headquarter in Ottawa. Also, the name NWMP, popularized once as Mounties, was inspired from the idea of armed force guarding the border. Hence the body has to maintain the legacy of both the Dominion Police and the Mounties. (RCMP’s History-Overview, 2007) 1. Corruption in the police department generally takes place due to following reasons. One is misuse of the authority and the second one is personal gain. In most of the cases the personal gain is the main reason behind any kind of corruption. One such incident took place in Mumbai, India where Constable Sunil More working with Marine Drive police station, condemned to 12 years rigorous custody for raping a minor girl at the Marine Drive police chowky on 21st April, 2005. Singh (2007) in her review mentioned that widespread corruption at every level of the police department acts as a difficulty in the proper functioning of the police department along with reducing the efficiently and effectively. It inverts the goals of the organization, that is, it may encourage and create crime rather than reducing it. (Singh, 2007) 2. Here “pad” indicated corruption by staffs of the police department. Hence it means everyone is corrupt. The “grass eaters” are those officers engaged in low-level or minor crime or corruption. Such offences are generally not strongly opposed by other officers. They are called reactive grafters and are often protected by the police departments on the contrary there are meat eaters involved in heavy corruption or burglary.  Such unusual codes are used for ease of investigation and maintenance of secrets in policing. (Deviance and Corruption, nd) 3. Policing in modern world in almost all the country is now like democratic policing. Democratic policing need government approval in order to taking any suspect under their custody for more than stipulated period before his or her wrongdoing is being proved, same way different laws that police apply, their possessions and the way of using power in applying those laws is determined by an autonomous procedure connecting variable degrees of sincerity, and also accountability to the public. Implementation of any law is always democratic in nature in this case but still police need some kind of authority to ensure that law and order in place and also they can take necessary steps so that peace and harmony remain in place. (Ellison &Pino, 2012) 4. Police officer are often sometimes faces the problem of anomic nature where the violence and other kinds of stress works creates this kind of situations among the police men. The regular duty, violence and other work related hazards are the main reason behind this anomic nature. With the advancement of technology police officer can avoid this kind of stress by involving himself with some works those are stress free, mind refreshing and also some work related to mental toughness can to increased their mental stability will help them avoid this anomic stress.(Newburn & Neyroud, 2008, p. 204) 5. Nobody is perfect in this world. But being social servant and having the responsibility of protecting people police needs. Deviance means inconsistency in norms value or ethics in the job. In the police service also there is deviance which creates corruption, misconduct among the police service. On the basis of deviances misconduct can be classified into following heads such as Malfeasance, Misfeasance and Nonfeasance. Police deviances can be of following kinds: police gratuity, police shakedowns, Police Perjury, Police Brutality, Police Profanity, Police sleeping on the duty time or police using drugs during or after duty period and police abusing. (O’Connor, 2005) 6. According to UNODC, the police officers are mostly responsible for maintaining the uprightness of the police force.  The next entities responsible for police accountability are the police oversight bodies which function independently. Then the State institutions also play a role. These agents act together to form a system of preventive and corrective measures. An effective complaint mechanism is required to guarantee accountability while police accountability is not limited to address of complaints. (UNODC, 2011) 7. Deviance is the main reason behind the misconduct of the police. Police brutality, shakedowns, misusing powers, brutal nature, using banned substances by virtue of additional power all this can be consider as the example of police deviance. One such incident can be noted in case of Baltimore in 2012 where despite the presence of police car a large scale of bribery was continue in the city just in front of a flooring company. The investigation revealed the fact that police officer used to take bribes from the company and they gave them the favor by redirecting the car which is involved in any kind of accident to that particular garage. It is also to be noted that this kind of incident not involves a large number of police men as only handful of police officer was penalized for this crime. But as a whole it has damaged the face of the police authority in front of the public. (Emery, 2012) 8. Generally in any country police officials have the power more than the general citizen. All those powers are assigned to them just because they have the duty to keep the city free of any kind of crimes. But those powers sometimes are used by some policemen for wrong doing. For example in any country after any kind of accident it is the responsibility of the policemen to solve the case, find out the actual reason, and arrange necessary treatment for the passengers and also to send the vehicle for repairing and figure out any kind of clue or hint is there or not in that damaged vehicle. But as the policemen have the power of taking the car under their custody like in the case of Baltimore in 2012, police can use the power and ask for bribe from the service station against sending those damage car for repairing. As those service station have to rely on this damage car repairing for their earning to get more business they offer bribe to police officials. This can be considering as police misconduct. 9. An independent Police complaint mechanism can be defined as a non-departmental public body that is responsible to handling complaints against the police service. It can elect few police officials on their own to manage the investigation against a particular complaint in other cases they can continue the investigation on their own. The requirement of police officials is mainly due to the fact that is some cases the official of the independent committee do not have the rights or power like the police officials. (Independent Police Complaints Commission - Home Affairs Committee, 2013). On the other hand the dependent model of customer complain is entirely rely on the police officials itself where the speed and accuracy of the complaint can also be lesser compare to that of the independent model. In independent model as the judge is being done by the people who are not associated with police in most cases or even when police officers are investigating they are under the surveillance of neutral people or authority so common people will have more trust on the independent system of complaint registration This will help to create a better image about the police authority and also about their functioning. 10. In every country the police system have few people who not work properly or get involve some kind of others misconduct. But this number is few compare to the size of police department in each country. Rotten apples concept is being used to describe this individuals in the security system. Rotten apples" are the few weak personalities who have glided through the training and recruitment process or surrendered to the offers given to them by the law breakers or some deviant individuals who carry on their deviation as they get ample opportunity. Police departments have a habit of using the rotten apple theory to diminish the public backlash .But there are some scholars who are against this concept and they termed this as rotten barrel" theory. According to their view the organizational structure of policing system give enough opportunity to those people and due to less amount of review about what they have learn in the academy while training offers enough number opportunities to learn the engrained forms of deviant police behavior that have been passed down thru generations over the years.(O’Connor, 2005) References 1. Deviance and Corruption,(n.d.), retrieved on 4.2.2014 from http://samples.jbpub.com/9780763771386/Ross_71386_CH09_131_148.pdf 2. Ellison G. &Pino N.; (2012), Globalization, Police Reform and Development: Doing it the Western Way, Palgrave Macmillan. 3. Emery, T.; (2012), Baltimore Police Scandal Spotlights Leader’s Fight to Root Out Corruption; The New York Times; retrieved on 4.2.2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/us/baltimore-police-corruption-case-tests-commissioner.html?_r=2& 4. Garriott, W.(2013), Policing and Contemporary Governance: The Anthropology of Police in Practice, Palgrave Macmillan 5. Handbook on Police Accountability, Oversight and Integrity, (2011), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, retrieved on 4.2.2014 from www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/crimeprevention/PoliceAccountability_Oversight_and_Integrity_10-57991_Ebook.pdf 6. Levinson D., (2002), Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, Sage publication 7. Murphy, C.(nd), Securitizing Canadian Policing: A New Policing Paradigm For the Post 9/11 Security State, retrieved on 4.2.2014 from http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CC0QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcanada.metropolis.net%2Fpdfs%2FCMurphy%2520security%2520polcing%2520article.pdf&ei=0UHvUrDRE8ezrges_oDYDw&usg=AFQjCNFlZXZTUrapslfyr9nIRvSIFA0wVw&sig2=y7ZmgHdIYeepcZTxUiPu9w 8. Newburn. T & Neyroud P. (2008), Dictionary of Policing, Willan Publishing. 9. O’Connor, T.R.; (2005), Police Deviances and Ethics, PoliceCrimes.com, retrieved on 4.2.2014 from http://policecrimes.com/police_deviance.html 10. Organizational Structure, (2010), Royal Canadian Mountain Police, retrieved from http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/about-ausujet/organi-eng.htm 11. Peachey P. & Lakhani N,, (2012), A Force for good? The rise of Private Police; retrieved on 4.2.2014 from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/a-force-for-good-the-rise-of-private-police-7561646.html 12. Shearing C.; (2011), Re Considering the Field of Policing, A Review of the Policing Web, Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 53(3), 325-341 13. The RCMP’s History: Overview; (2007), Royal Canadian Mounted police, retrieved on 4.2.2014 from http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/hist/index-eng.htm 14. Villiers P., (2009), Police and policing: An Introduction, Waterside Press 15. Wright, A. (2012), Policing, An Introduction to concepts practice, London: Routledge Read More