CHANGING THE MODEL OF POLICING Workshop – August 10, 2018 Micki Ruth, Edmonton Police Commission / CAPG Treasurer Sandy Smallwood, Ottawa Police Services Board/ CAPG Vice President

POLICE THROUGH THE YEARS

TODAY’S POLICE OFFICER

POLICING IN CANADA – A BRIEF HISTORY   Canada’s earliest legal traditions can be traced to both France and England. Quebec city followed the early models of French cities and created a watchman system in 1651. Upper Canada, later renamed Ontario, adopted English traditions and established both a constabulary and a watch-and-ward system.   The English system was imposed on French areas after 1759. Pre-Confederation British North America developed several types of police forces, initially in a municipal urban environment. Some permanent constables were first hired in Halifax as early as 1815, while Toronto established their police force in 1834, both under control of municipal authorities.

A BRIEF HISTORY Using England’s Metropolitan Police Act as a model, Toronto created a police department in 1835, and Quebec city and Montreal followed suit in 1838 and 1840, respectively. In 1867 provincial police forces were established for the vast rural areas in eastern Canada. The RCMP was created as Canada's North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1873 in response to belligerent Americans crossing the border, as a Heritage Minute famously reminds us, but the history of policing in Canada starts much earlier.  

Moving from Past to Future

Policing in Canada The policing model in Canada has remained remarkably unchanged since the 19th century and is no longer adequate for 21st century concerns in Canada

DRIVERS FOR CHANGE Policing has undergone many transformations in Canada, the US and abroad. Changes have historically been due to political influences. Today there are many drivers for change: Changing nature and complexity of crime Economic challenges – budgets are being squeezed Diversity in our communities and the need for police to reflect this Policing as a profession – career – attracting the right people

DRIVERS FOR CHANGE Paramilitary structure that has inherently existed within most services Cyber Crime Downloading of mental health / addiction issues to police Globalization Evidence based policing

WHY NOW? CAPG has set as a priority to challenge our current policing model. We need your input. How do we go about creating a community relevant, reflective of diversity, highly adaptive, externally-partnered and engaged, employee- fulfilling, highly effective model of policing?

BLUE SKY THINKING What are the practical things that Police Governance bodies can do to change the current model of policing? What do the members of our communities have to say? What other models of policing are better than ours? Is the current model of policing too paramilitary? Are we recruiting the right officers? Is our recruitment process the best one and do we hire the best?

Time to work together This is time for you to work together and have a group discussion at each table Bring forward your ideas – what would a good model look like? How does it fit into the whole picture? How do you get collaboration from cross section of stakeholders? There is no such thing as a bad idea Be provocative We want to hear everything

FROM INSIGHT INTO ACTION Okay we’ve got your ideas - How do we move this forward? Here’s some suggestions: Getting member buy-in/agreement Federal, and majority of provincial/territorial governments buy-in/agreement Buy-in from a cadre of at least 3 police leaders Money for one or more research papers on where we are today, and where we could/should go One or more organizational pilot project(s), with government funding support (within 5 years)

Our journey begins.

THANKS! We will put together the results of this workshop and circulate to you. On behalf of the CAPG we thank you for your input, ideas and passion for making change to improve the health, safety and well being of our communities.