Week 5:

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Week 5
CRM304 The Canadian Criminal Justice System

• Policing Law Enforcement

2

This Week

• History of policing
• Overview of policing
• The patrol function
• Recent trends in policing
• Policing in Canada

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A Brief History of Policing
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Pledge System (UK)

• Prior to 10th Century
• Tithings - groups of 10 families looked after
  each other
• Hundreds (10 tithings) had constable appointed by
  nobles
• Shires (counties) were supervised by shire-reeve

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Watch Ward (UK)

• Citizen patrols, all male adults expected to take
  part
• Legislation later required larger towns to
  implement citizen patrols
• Rich and affluent paid others to assume this
  responsibility
• Parish constables oversaw watchmen and
  investigated offenses

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Development of Modern Policing

• 1700s Policing increasingly conducted by
  military
• 1753 Bow Street Runners (London) - Volunteer
  thief-catchers overseen by a Magistrate
• 1829 London Metro Police Force
• Founded by Sir Robert Peel
• First modern police force in the world
• Philosophies (1) Proactive/preventative (2)
  Police are public, public are police

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Early Canadian Policing

• 1651 First police in Quebec (military)
• 1835 Toronto hires 6 night police
• 1800s Hudsons Bay Co. railroads form own
  police forces
• 1873 North-West Mounted Police formed
• 1920 NWMP merge with Dominion Police to become
  RCMP

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Technology / Modernization

• Police departments were revolutionized in 1930s
  by
• Two-way communications
• Police patrol vehicle
• And later, the 911 system
• Result
• Police increasingly became reactive,
  incident-driven
• Primary job respond to calls for service
• Beat cops replaced by roaming patrol cars
• Increased separation from the community

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Overview of Policing
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6 Hypotheses of Policing

• 1) Numbers of Police - The more police a city
  employs, the less crime it will have.
• 2) Rapid Response to 911 - The shorter the
  police travel time from assignment to arrival at
  a crime scene, the less crime there will be.
• 3) Random Patrols - Random patrols increase the
  perception of police "omnipresence," which deters
  crime in public places.

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6 Hypotheses of Policing

• 4) Directed Patrols - The more patrol presence is
  concentrated in "hot spots," the less crime there
  will be in those places.
• 5) Reactive Arrests - The more arrests police
  make in response to reported or observed
  offences, the less crime there will be.
• 6) Proactive Arrests - The higher the
  police-initiated arrest rate for high-risk
  offenders and offences, the lower the rates of
  serious violent crime.

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Organization of the Police

• Professional (Bureaucratic) Model
• Para-military structure
• Hierarchical ranking
• Job specialization
• Patrol, homicide, traffic, etc.
• Formal written routines and procedures
• A rule and a form to fill out for everything!
• Centralization of command
• Top-down approach

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Municipal Policing

• Functions
• Maintain public order
• Control and prevent crime
• Serve the community
• Reactive Incident-driven policing
• Respond to emergency calls
• Most calls for service are not criminal in nature
• Proactive
• Community policing / problem-oriented policing
• Paper work
• Police officers spend much of their time filling
  out paperwork

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Patrol Function

• Respond to calls
• Deter crime through visibility
• Maintain order sense of security
• Provide 24-hour services, most of which are not
  crime-related

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Recent trends in policing

• Community policing
• Problem-oriented police
• Broken Windows/Zero Tolerance

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Community Policing

• Community policing arose in the late 1960s in the
  US due to estrangement of policing from
  communities
• Major emphasis is on process increased
  communications partnerships between police and
  communities

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Community Policing

• Partnerships with the community
• Commitment to community empowerment
• Enhance informal social control
• Community input/participation in problem-solving
• More and better communications
• Increased police accountability to the community
• Police as part of the community
• Police as peace officers, not simply law
  enforcement
• Multi-agency cooperation
• Community-based!

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Community Policing

• Transformed Organizational Structure
• Objective greater responsibility autonomy for
  front-line constables to apply crime prevention
  strategies
• Hierarchical, para-military, organizational model
  is flattened
• Geographical decentralization
• Shift in power decentralized and personalized
  policing
• Police officers are reflective of the community

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Problem-Oriented Policing

• Arose in the late 1970s from the crisis of police
  effectiveness in controlling crime
• Police had become
• overwhelming reactive
• only addressing symptoms
• Emphasis of POP on outcome making policing more
  effective at preventing crime by addressing root
  causes

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Problem-Oriented Policing

• Proactive/preventative
• Address (root) causes
• Critical thinking and analysis
• Involvement of community in defining problems and
  developing solutions
• Intervention most appropriate solution to the
  problem
• Highly individualized solutions
• More diversion / use of alternatives to CJS
  (creativity!)

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Broken Windows/ Zero Tolerance

• Broken Windows theory
• Disorder is a crime magnet
• Creates fear, attracts criminals
• Central concern
• Address non-criminal disorder and incivilities
• Zero tolerance for even minor offences
• New York City
• Increased police powers for search and arrest
• Crackdown on turnstile jumping, public urination,
  public drug use, loitering, trespassing, public
  drunkenness, etc.
• Ontario Safe Streets Act

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Case Study Intensive Disorder Enforcement
(Newark, NJ)
Police followed the broken windows theory and
undertook a zero tolerance approach to reduce
disorder and crime in various Newark hot spots
(1) Street sweeps - to reduce loitering
disruptive behaviour, drug sales, etc. (2)
Police foot patrols - to disperse unruly groups
of youths, enforce law (3) Radar checks - to
enforce traffic regulations. (4) Bus checks - to
maintain order on public buses (5) Road blocks -
to deal with a number of motoring offences. (6)
Intensifying city services increasing the speed
of building repairs, structural improvements,
improving garbage collection, clean-up
campaign, juveniles convicted of petty offences
sentenced to the above through community hours
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Handout

• Different Philosophies of Policing
• Traditional policing
• Community policing
• Problem-oriented policing
• Zero tolerance policing

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Criminal Investigations

• Detectives often specialize in particular type of
  crime.
• E.g. Drugs, organized crime.
• Mostly reactive, some proactive.
• E.g. Sting operations.
• Concern about use of dirty tricks to obtain
  evidence.

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Police in Canada

• 77,000
• 1/4 civilian, 3/4 officers.
• Municipal Police
• About 67 of all police.
• Includes regional police.
• Provincial Police
• 23
• Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland
• RCMP
• 7.9

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RCMP

• While only 7.9 of all police, they are a symbol
  of Canadas law abiding nature
• Kept peace during Western settlement (contrasts
  with lawlessness bloodshed in U.S.)
• Responsible for federal law enforcement (drugs,
  smuggling, immigration, organized crime, national
  security)
• Also provides municipal and provincial policing
  in most provinces
• Only national police force in Western world