Applied Criminology: Police Powers, Oversight, and Governance

This essay explores the critical aspects of policing the police in Canada, emphasizing the need for oversight and governance to prevent the misuse of power. The author highlights instances where police actions, though sometimes legally permissible, require scrutiny to maintain social order and prevent breaches of law. The essay critically analyzes the balance between individual discretion in policing and the importance of accountability, referencing historical data, court decisions, and inquiry reports. It discusses the role of independent agencies and commissions in overseeing police conduct and addressing complaints. While acknowledging the necessity of police powers for maintaining law and order, the essay argues for robust internal discipline and governance mechanisms to ensure that these powers are not abused. The analysis suggests that a balanced approach, combining individual discretion with strict oversight, is essential for effective and accountable policing in Canada, with Desklib providing access to similar essays and study resources for students.

Running head: APPLIED CRIMINOLOGY
Applied Criminology
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Authors Note:

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Contents
Summarization -Policing the police:...............................................................................................2
Critical analysis:..............................................................................................................................2
References:......................................................................................................................................5

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Summarization -Policing the police:
In order to maintain an order and decorum in the society the police has been bestowed
with significant amount of power. Somewhat ironic is the fact that often police have the power to
take actions which are strictly prohibited under the law for any common public in the society. In
order to ensure that such wide powers are not misused by the police it is equally important to
police the police. Holding police accountable for their actions will help a society to not only
maintain the social order and decorum but will also be helpful in ensuring that there is no
unnecessary breach of law and rules by the police.
The author has highlighted the importance of police oversight and governance in Canada to
provide a detailed insight into the topic of discussion here. With significant amount of research
on the topic and historic data the author has elaborated the importance of governing and
regulating te powers of police in the country (Button, 32).
The author dealt with number of research issues in relation to the governance and regulation of
policing in the society including the law breaking powers of police, internal discipline,
governance mechanisms, the oversight agencies in Canada to govern and regulate policing
powers and mechanisms to deal with complaints against the police. The author used historical
data, decisions of courts and inquiry reports of the commissions to conclude that it is not proper
to leave the discretion to individual polices where it comes to deciding the court of actions to be
taken to maintain law and order situation in the society where the system and rules are not clear.
Critical analysis:
In order to maintain the law and order situation in the society the importance of police
and policing is immense. The author has highlighted the number of instances where the police

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have the liberty to break laws and rules which are beyond imagination for the common people.
The author in-facts sights instances where the police have the power to even eliminate people on
the suspicion of criminal acts. However, it is important to remember that the in order to maintain
the law and order situation in the society, the police have been given these wide powers.
However, there are number of independent agencies which have been given powers to contempt
the police and implicate them for their unwarranted actions. Apart from that the commissions
have the power to conduct inquiries against the police for alleged breach of law and order. In
addition courts have the power to take actions against the police if it violates the rules and
regulations of the society which were unnecessary and unwarranted (Sanders, Carrie, Weston,
and Nicole, 721)
The evidence provided to support the theory of the author that the individuals should not be
allowed to take decisions discretely in situations have not considered the implications of delay in
taking decisions in emergency situations. The author has only focussed on the negative aspects
of policing whereas there are number of instances where the decisions taken by individuals on
their discretions have averted the possible negative law and order situations. Alternative
implications of the policing have not been explained and discussed in the chapter.
In order to come to a conclusion on a particular topic it is important to take into consideration all
possible aspects of the topic instead of focussing on one of the aspects leaving the other
unattended. Here only the negative aspects of policing due to the law breaking decisions of
police have been discussed leaving the number of instances where such individual discrete
decisions have averted the possible law and order crisis situations.

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It is not possible to support the conclusion of the author completely with respect to individual
discretion allowing the police to take law and order decisions neither it completely lacks logic to
question the reasonability of such discretion. However, an objective view is to ensure proper
internal disciple in the policing departments along with strict oversight and governance of police
in the country to avert major breach of law. Hence, it is important to state that it is difficult to
fully support or contradict the views of the author in respect of the conclusion made by the
author in respect of policing decisions.

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References:
Button, Mark. Security officers and policing: powers, culture and control in the governance of
private space. Routledge, 2016. 32.
Sanders, Carrie B., Crystal Weston, and Nicole Schott. "Police innovations,‘secret squirrels’ and
accountability: Empirically studying intelligence-led policing in Canada." British journal of
criminology 55.4 (2015): 711-729.