Police Governance: Oversight, Models, and Comparison

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of police governance, offering a comprehensive analysis of its various dimensions. It begins by differentiating between police governance and police oversight, highlighting their distinct roles and functions within law enforcement. The report then proceeds to compare and contrast the dependent, interdependent, and independent models of investigating police misconduct, evaluating their respective strengths and weaknesses. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to a comparative analysis of the police governance structures of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Calgary Police Service (CPS), examining their operational differences and public perceptions. Furthermore, the report identifies key issues and problems plaguing the RCMP, such as bullying and harassment, and proposes potential solutions, including civilian oversight, enhanced leadership development, and revised promotional criteria. The author provides their informed opinion on these matters, emphasizing the importance of accountability and cultural transformation to restore public trust in the RCMP. The report draws upon relevant academic sources and news articles to support its arguments, offering a well-researched and insightful exploration of police governance in Canada.

Running head: POLICE GOVERNANCE 1
Police Governance
Student’s Name
University’s Name

POLICE GOVERNANCE 2
Difference between police oversight and police governance
Police governance is generally aligned with the overall guidance of police serves and
gives proper direction by formulating the organizations strategic objectives and goals. Police
oversight on the other hand is generally associated with the methods and mechanisms it adopts
for handling of complaints of against the individual officer, police service or anything against
certain policy (East & Kaustinen, 2014).
The Police governance must be competent in its work. The policies and plans must meet
with the requirements of the committee it serves and must be transparent and demonstrate
integrity. The decisions must be well communicated, sound and accurate. The main functions of
police governance are prevention of crime and detection of it, maintain public order and provide
assistance to the public. The police is the strong arm of the State and in order to carry out its
functions impartially it has been granted sufficient autonomy which is in line with the policies
and laws. This operational independence must not be misused.
Police oversight ensures that despite having powers, police forces are not above the law.
The police oversight oversees that the police department do not take advantage of the powers and
their position. It is a watchdog that regulates the police governance so that the trust and
confidence of the public is maintained (Law Connection, 2017).
Compare and contrast the dependant, interdependent and independent models of
investigation into police misconduct
There are three different models used during different jurisdictions to investigate which is
the dependent model, interdependent and independent model.

POLICE GOVERNANCE 3
In the dependent model, the police officers’ investigations against their own police
department officers or members belonging to another department. This model is often criticized
because the investigators of the same police department and thus investigation is less objective
and is biased lacking legal legitimacy. This model has lower costs and time but since there is no
civilian involvement, this model is not accepted by society.
In the interdependent model, the investigators investigate against their own members or
members of some another police sector but with civilian oversight. Since the community is
involved, civilian perspective and their feedbacks are considered. Although, the investigation is
done by the police, but civilian oversight sees that the investigation is transparent and balanced.
But the greatest negative point of this model is that the police officers have expertise in their
field and may be reluctant. The civilians may not know the trick of the trade. But the civilian
oversight ensures that the judgment is impartial and not done in favor of police or civilians.
In the independent model, the investigation is done by civilian body that receives the
complaints and does the investigation independently. This is the most effective and reliable
model and the civilians feel more comfortable with this model. The citizens can feel free to
complain about the officer without any fear of being reprimanded or reprisal. However, the
opponents of this model argue that the investigators in this model are not experts and does not
have a full understanding of the policies, laws and police culture. They lack experience in
conducting criminal investigation and hence the independent investigators fail to gain trust in the
law enforcement department (McCartney & Parent, 2015).

POLICE GOVERNANCE 4
Compare and contrast the police governance of the RCMP and Calgary police service
RCMP stands for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which is a federal and national
police force of the Canadian government. RCMP is a law enforcement body at a federal level.
As it is federal police of Canada, RCMPs primary responsibility is to enforce federal laws across
the Canada. The general law and order is generally the responsibility of the territorial or
provincial legislation. RCMPs main duties are enforcement of federal laws that includes
trafficking, commercial crime, domestic security, border protection, counter-terrorism, and
providing security services to the Prime Minister, Monarch and other Royal authorities. RCMP
also provides police patrolling to provinces of Canada that do not have any police force on
contractual basis but does not provide policing services to Ontario or Quebec.
Calgary Police Service (CPS) is the law enforcement Police service in Canada that
incorporates the usage of air support in its routine operations. It is located in Alberta, Calgary
and Canada and the main aim of CPS is to preserve the peace and harmony of the community.
CPS ensures that the quality of life of the region is maintained and Calgary remains to be a safe
place to live, work, stay or visit.
The main difference between RCMP and CPS is that CPS is created by the municipalities
and is an independent police service where as RCMP is under government governance and is
under the authority of ‘Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act’. The Commissioner is the head of
RCMP. In many provinces, the RCMP provides policing and is the only provincial force.
RCMP has been given many powers which are being misused. Many Canadians have dimmer
view of RCMP and the confidence of the Canadians have dropped significantly. On the other
hand, CPS has positive views in their respective municipalities (Oliver, 2013).

POLICE GOVERNANCE 5
What are issues/problems, possible solutions, and your opinion?
Bullying and harassment are serious problems that have afflicted the RCMP. RCMP has
neither the ability nor the skill to address its problems. RCMP which is the federal police of
Canada has a dysfunctional work culture and defective leadership, hence the federal government
has stepped in and introduced civilian governance to bring the necessary change and fix the
problem that is plaguing the RCMP. The RCMP is not in a position to fix its own problems;
hence the change in the government structure will help to bring cultural transformation
(Bronskill, 2017).
Civilian oversight will help in resolving issues like sexual harassment, bullying,
intimidation, harassment, etc which is infecting RCMP. Another solution is to foster leadership
skills and promotional criteria must be based on expertise, professionalism and management
skills. The leadership development programs and educational requirement must be made
mandatory for promotion.
In my opinion the Minister of Public Safety must strictly abide to law enforcement and
civilian governance also must be experts and have understanding of policing. By enhancing
accountability and taking immediate steps to bring transformational change in the culture will
help in regaining the lost confidence of Canadians in RCMP. (Sevunts, 2017).
References
East, K., & Kaustinen, F. (2014). Independent Citizen Governance of Police -Reasons &
Principles . APSB. Retrieved from
https://oapsb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Independent-Citizen-Governance-of-Police-
Reasons-_-Principles-.pdf

POLICE GOVERNANCE 6
Jim Bronskill. (2017, may 15). Bullying, harassment thrive at RCMP, watchdog says. Retrieved
september 22, 2017, from http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bullying-harassment-thrive-at-
rcmp-watchdog-says-1.3413856
Law Connection. (2017). Police Oversight. Retrieved september 22, 2017, from
http://www.lawconnection.ca/content/police-oversight
McCartney, S., & Parent, R. (2015). Investigation Models. In Ethics in Law Enforcement.
Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/ethicsinlawenforcement/chapter/5-3-investigation-
models/
Oliver, J. (2013, january 1). Public opinion of scandal-plagued RCMP down ‘significantly’ in
past five years: poll. Retrieved september 22, 2017, from
http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/public-opinion-of-scandal-plagued-rcmp-down-
significantly-in-past-five-years-poll
Sevunts, L. (2017, may 15). National police watchdog calls for civilian oversight of RCMP.
Retrieved september 22, 2017, from http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2017/05/15/national-police-
watchdog-calls-for-civilian-oversight-of-rcmp/