Roles and Responsibilities of the Police

Police are responsible to keep Canadians safe and to enforce the law. This can be broken down into three main areas: crime prevention, investigations and emergency response.

Crime Prevention

Police spend much of their time preventingcrime. This includes patrolling areas by car, on bikes, on horses and on foot to monitor public places, businesses and homes. Police also workwith such organizations as Neighbourhood Watch and Block Parents and attend protests and special events to make sure that crowds stay safe and under control. Police also keep the public safe by enforcing speed limits and other laws.

Investigations

Police also conduct investigations in order to protect Canadians and enforce the law. They investigate theft and financial crimes such as fraud and commercial scams. They also investigate cases involving kidnapping, murder andterrorism.This can include surveillance, gatheringevidence and interviewing witnesses, writing reports and providing testimony in court.

Emergency Response

Police also respond to emergencies, including crimes, accidents and naturaldisasters. They are responsible for helping victims and providing first aid, arresting suspects and directingtraffic.

Specially trained police officers are usually called in to deal with more complicated or dangerous situations. This includes subduing and disarming people with weapons and managing hostage situations. Specialists are also called in to handle or defusebombs and other explosives.

Police Forces and Jurisdiction

Most policing in Canada is provided by theRCMP andmunicipal police forces. The RCMPenforces federal laws and provides policing services in all territories and most provinces (exceptOntario andQuebec).Most cities and many large towns have their own municipal police forces, and manyFirst Nations also have their own police forces.

Federal Police: RCMP

The federal police force, theRCMP, is the largest single force in the country. It enforces federal laws, investigates financial andorganized crime,protects national security and ensures the safety of state officials and foreign dignitaries. The RCMP also provides policing services under contract to all territories and provinces, exceptOntarioandQuebec. In addition, it provides policing services to more than 150 municipalities and 600Indigenouscommunities.

The RCMP also provides services to all Canadian public police forces. This includes the Canadian Police College and the Canadian Police Information Centre, the central police database that provides information on such matters as criminal records. Otherspecialized services include the Canadian Firearms Program and the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre.

Provincial Police

Under theConstitution, provinces are responsible for public policing. However, onlyOntario,Quebec andNewfoundland and Labrador have their own provincial police force. In all other provincesand territories, theRCMP provides policing services to areas that don’t have municipal police forces.

TheOntario Provincial Police (founded in 1909) has jurisdiction over the entire province, except in municipalities that have their own police force. TheSûreté du Québec(founded in 1870) operates in a similar way. In Newfoundland and Labrador, theRoyal Newfoundland Constabulary (founded in 1871) provides policing services incommunities across the province, including the major metropolitan areas:St. John’s Metropolitan Area,Corner Brook,Labrador City and Churchill Falls. In other areas, the province contracts the services of the RCMP.

Municipal Police

Most cities and many large towns have their own police force. Provinces delegate the responsibility of policing to large municipalities through provincial Police Acts. These municipal police forces are usually governed directly bymunicipal councilsor their communities. Many towns and cities also have police boards that oversee the operation of the municipal police force. In addition, most provinces directly supervise municipal forces through police commissions. The provinces pay part of the costof municipal policing and can penalize municipalities if they don’t meet standards.

First Nations Police

First Nations policing is governed by the First Nations Policing Program (FNPP). Under this policy, First Nations negotiate with thefederal governmentandprovincial orterritorial government to establish policing agreements. The agreementscan include self-administered police services or policing by provincial or federal services. TheRCMP, for example, provides policing services to more than 600Indigenous communities.

In 2018, there were 36 First Nations self-administered police services. In the west, they include the Manitoba First Nations Police, Stl'atl'imx Tribal Police Service, File Hills First Nations Police Service, Blood Tribe Police Service, Lakeshore RegionalPolice Service and Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service. There are many First Nations police services in central Canada, including the Six Nations Police Service, Anishinabek Police Service, Kahnawá:ke Peacekeepers, Abenaki Police Force and Timiskaming PoliceForce.

Other Police Forces

Apart from federal, provincial, municipal and First Nations police, governments in Canada authorize other forms of police with legal powers. These powers are limited to specific areas and/or specific groups of people but are like those of the public police.The Harbour Police, Military Police and Railway Police are examples.

Safeguards and Accountability

Police are responsible to obey the law as well as enforce it. The law (including the Canadian Criminal Code and provincial Police Acts) limits police power by defining thecircumstances in which the police may act. In some circumstances, governments may pass laws that give the police "special powers." The most extraordinary example of this in Canada is the War Measures Act,which was invoked during the 1970 October Crisis inQuebec.

If police officers are accused of committing a crime, exceeding their limitations under the law or acting in a way that contravenes police codes of conduct, they will be investigated. Civilian oversight is an important part of this process. All provinceshave a public complaint process that is independent from the police. Examples include the Office of the Independent Police Review Director inOntario, Office of the Police ComplaintCommissionerinBritish Columbia and Public Complaints Commission inSaskatchewan. Complaints abouttheRCMP are reviewed and managed by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP. A similar agency reviews complaints made about Military Police.

Members of the public can submit complaints to these organizations, which review and make recommendations but cannot usually investigate or lay charges. If they decide a complaint is legitimate, the case is usually forwarded to the police service in question.In cases of minor misconduct, police officers are usually disciplined informally. By law, more serious cases should be investigated by an independent organization, although this does not always happen.

Cases of criminal misconduct or other serious allegations (e.g., death, serious injury,sexual assault) are investigated by independent civilian agencies. These include Ontario’sSpecial Investigations Unit (SIU), Nova Scotia’s Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) and the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT).

Complaints can lead to inquiries and significant change in Canadian policing. For example, theRoyal Commission of Inquiry into Certain Activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police(1977–81) investigated allegations of crimes by the RCMP Security Service. One of its recommendations was the establishment of theCanadian Security Intelligence Service(CSIS). More recently, complaints of workplace harassment in the RCMP led to several reviews. In May 2017, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP released its Report on Workplace Harassment in the RCMP. Its recommendationsincluded modernizing RCMP governance and making the organization’s harassment complaints process more independent and effective.

Independent agencies have also investigated allegations ofracism among the police. This includes the impact of race in “street checks” or “carding,” when someone is stopped by policeon the street in order to collect personal information. Complaints have also been made about police attitudes towards missing person and murder cases involvingIndigenouspeople. In 2016, for example, a complaint was launched against theThunder Bay police force regarding the way it investigated the deaths of Indigenous people. This launched atwo-year review by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), which revealed systemic racism in the force. In June 2019, the Thunder Bay police force announced that nine deaths would be reinvestigated by a multidisciplinary, multiagencyteam.