Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Let's Talk about the Calgary Police Service

Blankcanvas · 06-13-2020, 01:03 AM

I don’t post much on here but feel the need to add my opinion to this debate.

I was a police officer in the UK and immigrated to Calgary in 2002. I quickly formed the opinion that policing in Calgary was at least 20 to 30 years behind the UK. I don’t mean the technology, equipment, training or processes. I mean the culture and what is acceptable by society and the Courts in relation to police use of force and to a certain extent, discrimination. How the public, the politicians and media feel about the police. Rightly or wrongly it is all taking shape here now as I believed it would….. Calgary is now catching up.

Take the murder of Stephen Lawrence in London April 1993 as an example. The botched police investigation resulted in the MacPherson Report which concluded the UK Police was institutionally racist. A lot changed in the UK as a result but similar allegations are now being made against Canadian Police agencies.

What is now being called ‘police brutality’ was once accepted by the majority. If you broke the law and offered any kind of resistance to the police you got ‘what you deserved’. To spend the night in the 'drunk tank' if you were drunk and disorderly was acceptable, now there aren’t any drunk tanks. The majority of people, including the ‘bad guys’, had a healthy respect for the police. Typically, the Court’s believed the testimony of a police officer over the accused and most members were proud to be police officers. Not any more. Despite joining the police for the same reasons, to serve the community, they are now questioning what their role is and will they be in trouble for doing the job they were trained to do.

Support for the ‘boys in blue’ is diminishing. Trust and faith in the police is being eroded across North America. The way the police do business and use of force hasn’t changed much. What has changed is what society and the public view as acceptable. The police will evolve and change to catch up to these new views but police cultural doesn’t change over night.

I always find Sir Robert Peels 9 principles of policing to be relevant, especially at this time:

1. To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.
2. To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.
3. To recognise always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing co-operation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.
4. To recognise always that the extent to which the co-operation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.
5. To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humour, and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.
6. To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public co-operation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective.
7. To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
8. To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.
9. To recognise always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.

These principles are 200 years old…… please don’t forget that the majority of police officers are good people, with good intentions wanting to help the public and serve the community. Calgary is still a very safe place to live with relatively low crime rates and the Calgary Police Service has played a significant role in this.

06-13-2020, 01:03 AM	#889
Blankcanvas Backup Goalie Join Date: May 2016 Location: Calgary Exp:	I don’t post much on here but feel the need to add my opinion to this debate. I was a police officer in the UK and immigrated to Calgary in 2002. I quickly formed the opinion that policing in Calgary was at least 20 to 30 years behind the UK. I don’t mean the technology, equipment, training or processes. I mean the culture and what is acceptable by society and the Courts in relation to police use of force and to a certain extent, discrimination. How the public, the politicians and media feel about the police. Rightly or wrongly it is all taking shape here now as I believed it would….. Calgary is now catching up. Take the murder of Stephen Lawrence in London April 1993 as an example. The botched police investigation resulted in the MacPherson Report which concluded the UK Police was institutionally racist. A lot changed in the UK as a result but similar allegations are now being made against Canadian Police agencies. What is now being called ‘police brutality’ was once accepted by the majority. If you broke the law and offered any kind of resistance to the police you got ‘what you deserved’. To spend the night in the 'drunk tank' if you were drunk and disorderly was acceptable, now there aren’t any drunk tanks. The majority of people, including the ‘bad guys’, had a healthy respect for the police. Typically, the Court’s believed the testimony of a police officer over the accused and most members were proud to be police officers. Not any more. Despite joining the police for the same reasons, to serve the community, they are now questioning what their role is and will they be in trouble for doing the job they were trained to do. Support for the ‘boys in blue’ is diminishing. Trust and faith in the police is being eroded across North America. The way the police do business and use of force hasn’t changed much. What has changed is what society and the public view as acceptable. The police will evolve and change to catch up to these new views but police cultural doesn’t change over night. I always find Sir Robert Peels 9 principles of policing to be relevant, especially at this time: 1. To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment. 2. To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect. 3. To recognise always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing co-operation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws. 4. To recognise always that the extent to which the co-operation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives. 5. To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humour, and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life. 6. To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public co-operation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective. 7. To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence. 8. To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty. 9. To recognise always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them. These principles are 200 years old…… please don’t forget that the majority of police officers are good people, with good intentions wanting to help the public and serve the community. Calgary is still a very safe place to live with relatively low crime rates and the Calgary Police Service has played a significant role in this.