Regional Policing In Canada

For several decades in Canada, regional policing has been a topic for discussion, with as many people arguing in support as those arguing against. There is no easy answer, even using Ontario as an example of the effects of regional policing would do the topic no justice as every community is unique and cannot be guaranteed to respond to the new policing model in the same way as another. Many extraneous factors influence the effectiveness of a policing model, not the least of which is media representation of the police force. If the media presents police officers in a negative light, the public is likely is react to police activity with distrust or, in the worst of cases, hostility regardless of how theoretically effective their policing model …show more content…
One of the most common arguments supporting regionalized police services is the reduction of costs it would bring. According to Curt T. Griffiths, having one centralized department costs significantly less than the amount of independent departments necessary to support the same area (Griffiths, 2015), and S. C. Fairweather claimed that regional police department requires 16.7 percent less money to support each police officer than municipal police forces (Fairweather, 1978). With such a significant decrease, the money saved could go towards improving police services by perhaps investing in better equipment, creating more jobs for police officers, or paying police officers more for their hard work. Another argument made is that regionalized police departments are better capable of delivering a larger variety of services to the community (Griffiths, 2015). This is a necessity due to the rapid evolution of criminal activity caused by the advancements in technology and developments in everyday urban life; the police force needs to be flexible and fully capable of providing a variety of services in order to contend with these changes (Jing, 2010). However, when considering this argument, it is important to acknowledge that Lui Jing 's article on regional policing was written in a Chinese context, and therefore cannot be wholly applied to a discussion on regional policing in a Canadian context …show more content…
It is ultimately up the the provinces to determine whether regionalized policing will benefit their communities, weighing all the options and considering the unique needs of their public. Different styles of policing will benefit different communities, there is no flawless universal policing model to solve all the nations