Royal Canadian Mounted Police

“ Nothing could be a greater mistake than to look upon the Mounted Police as a body separate from the elements that have gone to the making of the Canadian West. As a body, it is true, they were aloof from partisan political strife, from class struggles in the social order and from the activities of commercial endeavour, but their influence was felt constantly on the pulse of the growing country which, like a boisterous growing boy, needed restraint and guidance in reaching the fullness of its powers. ”

“ Knowing their many sterling qualities I cannot despair, but believe their descendants will be prosperous and desirable citizens of our North-West Territory." Words like these could not be written by a man who contented himself with the routine duty of a policeman, but by a wide-awake Canadian who was anxious for the future of his country and his fellow-citizens, and it is because there were so many in the Force who saw these questions in the light of Canada's future that we have always placed the Mounted Police amongst the real nation-builders of this new Dominion. ”

“ This is the story of the way in which the Royal North-West Mounted Police of Canada came into being. These "Riders of the Plains" stand alone and unparalleled in the world in their organisation, their peculiar field of work, and the nature of their control over the vast region entrusted to their care. This Mounted Police Force comprises about six hundred officers and men, whose territory is an area as extensive as all Central Europe, or a region five times as large as Great Britain ”

“ I asked, in some surprise, “that they haven’t done that before, if they know that George Barreau, the fur-trader, is Slowfoot George of the MacLeod country?”
“For the very good reason that they want no Mounted Policemen in this neck of the woods,” he said decidedly. “They don’t want to establish a precedent. They have lorded it in the North for generations, and so long as they continue to do so the Canadian government will permit it. Once the Police begin to come here, the Company authority is at an end. ”

“ In the annals of frontier-life anywhere you like in the world, nothing can be found more filled with heroic incident in the performance of duty and the maintenance of a high prestige, than the history of our own Canadian Mounted Police. ”

“ There had been an overflow of 'bad men' from Montana into what is now Southern Alberta and South-Western Saskatchewan, who repeated in Canada the exploits by which they had made Montana infamous. In large measure, world opinion took for granted that lawlessness must accompany pioneer conditions. Canada's Mounted Police Force was the challenge to that idea. ”

“ The surveyors and engineers asked the hostile chief to move, but he only laughed at them and urged his braves to more violent exhibitions of their prowess. The men of peaceful occupations discreetly withdrew to a safe distance and halted their work, but at the same time managed to send back word to the Mounted Police headquarters as to the situation. Headquarters sent a message to the detachment of police nearest the scene of disturbance, though it was many miles away. That detachment of police consisted of only two men, a sergeant and a constable. ”

“ I do not believe, however, that harm is intended the boy."
"Why don't you take the police into it, Professor," asked Judge Fletcher. "It can't be worse than it is. The Canadian police are a very efficient organization, almost as efficient as fiction makes them out to be." ”

“ Canadian police officials are fully aware of their Charter obligations. The fact that they are operating abroad makes it no more difficult than in Canada to be aware of their obligations under the Charter. As is clear from the discussion above, there is no question of a "conflict" between foreign procedures and Canadian procedures. If the compulsory foreign procedure adopted falls below the standard required by the Charter, then the Canadian officials may not take a directing or primary role in the part of the investigation involving those techniques. ”

“ The institutional restructuring of the police should be based on a philosophy of service with a view to protecting the rights of each individual. As a guarantor of public order and an aid to the Public Prosecutor's Office in the investigation of crime, the police force should ensure internal peace and the safety of the citizens, and in so doing it is empowered to make legitimate use of force when absolutely necessary. Such action should be subject to effective internal controls, since only jurisdictional bodies are empowered to review the legality of police actions. ”

“ America's law enforcement officers face extraordinary risks-breaking up a drug ring, apprehending a fugitive, responding to an incident of domestic violence, even making a traffic stop. Since the first recorded police death in this country in 1794, more than 13,500 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty. On average, more than 62,000 officers are assaulted and some 20,000 are injured each year. ”

“ According to the Government, the aim of s 5 of the PFCR is to assist in law enforcement, investigation and prosecution by enabling police officers to verify the identity of all masked individuals not only during assemblies or processions but also in public places in the prevailing circumstances of public danger in Hong Kong. The aim of law enforcement, investigation and prosecution of offenders is undoubtedly a legitimate aim in itself. ”

“ Canada and the United States will enhance law enforcement collaboration by reestablishing the Cross-Border Crime Forum to facilitate cooperation among law enforcement bodies, including strengthening information sharing between the two countries and addressing justice reform, as well as cross-border law enforcement challenges to make communities safer. ”

“ In our view, a blatant and serious challenge mounted against the police force which is charged with the responsibility of maintaining public safety and security, and thus a symbol of law and order, will certainly instill a sense of fear amongst the law-abiding members of the public, in particular, apprehension of a breakdown of a safe and peaceful society into a lawless one. ”

“ And at the period of the Great War, there was a singularly elusive but definitely pronounced tendency to destructive revolution in various parts of Canada, which only a corps with the great prestige of the Mounted Police could successfully meet with firmness and tact. The undisciplined violence which raw forces might use in such a restless, mutinous period, would work positive harm to the whole Dominion. Hence we could not on either occasion let the whole Force go abroad. ”

“ Often a detective will help a man out of his own pocket when he knows that a case is really a necessitous one. He has no animus against any person he arrests. His duty is merely to place in safe custody the person he believes to be responsible for a breach of the law. Conviction or acquittal matters nothing to him after that. He has done his duty.
A wide knowledge of human nature is necessary to his calling, and he never forgets that the power of a police officer has its limitations. A man who brings discredit or ridicule on the department has a short-lived official life. ”

“ FPD Use of Force Often Results from Unlawful Arrest and Officer Escalation A defining aspect of FPD's pattern of excessive force is the extent to which force results from unlawful stops and arrests, and from officer escalation of incidents. Too often, officers overstep their authority by stopping individuals without reasonable suspicion and arresting without probable cause. Officers frequently compound the harm by using excessive force to effect the unlawful police action. Individuals encountering police under these circumstances are confused and surprised to find themselves being detained. ”

“ The institution must, without further delay, adopt a truly democratic policy that is respectful of the rule of law, and that is consistent with respect for human rights and the concept of public service. Some of the violations committed by police officers can be prevented by redoubling efforts to enhance police training, particularly as regards arrest procedures, treatment of those detained and proportional use of force. ”

“ Public security organs do not require court-approved warrants to detain suspects under their administrative detention powers. After detention the procuracy can approve formal arrest without court approval. According to the law, in routine criminal cases police can unilaterally detain persons for up to 37 days before releasing them or formally placing them under arrest. After a suspect is arrested, the law allows police and prosecutors to detain a person for up to seven months while public security organs further investigate the case. ”

“ Since early 2020, communities around the country have faced rising rates of violent crime, requiring law enforcement engagement at a time when law enforcement agencies are already confronting the challenges of staffing shortages and low morale. Strengthening community trust is more critical now than ever, as a community’s cooperation with the police to report crimes and assist investigations is essential for deterring violence and holding perpetrators accountable. ”

“ I saw revolvers raised at him instantly, but at that the man, my friend, who stood beside me, sprang in front of the Indian.
“Stop—stop!” he cried. “In the name of the law! I am a sergeant of the mounted police of Canada. My jurisdiction extends from Winnipeg to Vancouver. You cannot have this man except over my body: and for my body every one of you will pay with your lives; for every blow struck this night, there will be a hundred blows struck upon the river-drivers and mill-hands of this valley. ”

“ But this securing the good-will of the police is comparatively unimportant, and is practically incapable of legal proof. A far more serious thing is the influence steadily brought to bear on the police in many small municipalities, to cause them to refrain from proceeding against certain public-houses. ”

“ The violation of the right to integrity is usually related to the disproportionate or arbitrary use of violence by police officers who are arresting someone or enforcing a court order. When, the use of violence is out of proportion to the objective sought, a case of excessive use of force exists. ”

“ Our police do a great job, and they've never been troubled like they're troubled now. It's very unfair what's happening. So we want to cherish our law enforcement, and we will always protect those who protect us. ”

“ It is something more than relentlessness. It is more than keeping politics out of the courts. It is a tacit national recognition of two basic truths: that the protection of innocence is the business of the courts more than the protection of guilt; that having delegated to the Department of Justice the enforcement of criminal law, Canada holds that Department of Justice responsible for every infraction of law. ”

“ A large proportion of the duties of the police, moreover, have nothing to do with crime. The mere collection of large numbers of people together makes a police necessary without any reference to the crime they actually commit. ”

“ However, the immediate demands of the fight against crime, the concern not to create vacuums of authority, and other risks which the disbanding of the National Police would entail have prompted the Government to opt for a strategy which combines very rapid retraining of members of the existing force with the training of new police. ”

“ A little more than a minute later, the suspect reportedly approached the officer who had taken cover behind the right front fender of the police car and told her to drop her gun or he would "blow her head off." The officer, who was wearing body armor, placed her gun on the ground and raised her hands. The suspect then shot the victim officer in the neck from less than 5 feet away. Her partner returned fire and shot the man six times. The 21 -year-old offender, who was on conditional release pending criminal prosecution, was known to law enforcement as a drug dealer. ”

“ Sooner or later, notwithstanding our national prejudices against all that is secret and underhand, we must adopt a system for the detection of crime on the plan that is found to work so well in France; and the sooner we do so the better, unless we want to make England in general, and London in particular, more than even it is now the happy hunting-ground of all the scoundrels in Europe. All Frenchmen who have visited our country say that our ordinary police is the very best in the world; that the manner in which they preserve order in the streets is above praise ”

“ The enforcement is greatly aided by the fact that criminal law in Canada is under federal jurisdiction. An embezzler can not defalcate in Nova Scotia, lightly skip into Manitoba and put both provinces to expense and technical trouble apprehending him. In the States I once was annoyed by a semi-demented blackmailer. When I sent for the sheriff—whose deputy, by the way, hid when summoned—the lunatic stepped across the state border, and it would have cost me two hundred dollars to have apprehended him. ”

“ The rough and the criminal do not fear the prowess of the individual policeman, they fear the organization behind him—take that away, and the constable becomes merely a big man armed with nothing more formidable than a wooden truncheon.
The result of this temporary and partial breakdown of the organization was that the whole force suffered a double loss; the general public, no longer feeling the old confidence in the power of the police to protect them, withheld to some extent their moral support ”