Police Powers, Strategies & Tactics | Nelson Education PDF

Police Powers, strategies, decision-making and engagement Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 1  Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Police Powers The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has had a significant impact in def...

Police Powers, strategies, decision-making and engagement Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 1  Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Police Powers The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has had a significant impact in defining the powers of the police. Charter rights, combined with pre-existing legal rules, are designed to provide legal safeguards against the unlimited use of police power. Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education 2 Limited. Supreme Court of Canada and Police Powers The Charter gave those accused the right to challenge the actions of the police. The Charter has also lead to SCC rulings giving the police significant powers. Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 3  Police Accountability Principle of accountability: The actions of police officers and police services are subject to review and there are formal channels that individuals can use to lodge complaints against the police. Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education 4 Limited. Police Ethics Canadian police officers are required to adhere to codes of conduct and ethics. These are contained in Among the questions that are designed to assist police officers in avoiding ethical difficulties are the following: Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education 5 Limited.  The Exercise of Discretion Discretion: The power or right to decide or act according to one’s own judgment seriousness of the incident amount of discretion exercised Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 6 Patrol officers bring Typification to their work a set of cognitive lenses Recipes through which they for action make determinations about the people and events they Decision- encounter. making Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 7 Biased Policing/Racial Profiling Bias-free policing: The requirement that police officers make decisions on the basis of reasonable suspicion and probable grounds rather than stereotypes about race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or other prohibited grounds. One manifestation of biased policing is racial profiling. Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 8 Racial Profiling/Criminal Profiling Racial Profiling relies on stereotypes about race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, or place of origin rather than on reasonable suspicion may result from police officers’ internal implicit bias, which stems from unconscious stereotypes, or explicit bias, which arises from conscious stereotypes may be a consequence of over-policing and pretext policing Criminal Profiling based on objective evidence of wrongdoing by an individual particular attention to signals and “unusual fits” Hot spot profiling Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 9  The Force Options Framework risk Response proportional to Officer presence The mere presence of a police officer may alter the behaviour of the participants at an altercation, thereby enabling control of the situation. Dialogue Verbal and non-verbal communication skills may resolve the conflict and result in voluntary compliance. Empty hands Physical force is used to gain control. Compliance tools Equipment or weapons are used to gain control. Lethal force The situation requires complete incapacitation of the subject in order to gain control, and lethal force is the only option available to reduce the lethal threat. Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 10 Entrapment Entrapment: A person ends up committing an offence that he or she would not otherwise have committed, largely as a result of pressure or cunning on the part of the police. The SCC in R. v. Mack (1988) provided guidelines: Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education 11 Limited.  The “Mr. Big” Technique An investigative strategy designed to secure confessions from crime suspects through the creation of an elaborate scenario The SCC in R. v. Hart (2014) provided guidelines. Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 12  Search and Seizure Section 8 of the Charter protects all citizens against “unreasonable” search or seizure. Evidence obtained during an illegal search may be excluded from trial if, as indicated in Section 24 of the Charter, its use would bring the justice system into disrepute. The Supreme Court of Canada has held in R. v. S.A.B. (2003 SCC 60) that for a search to be reasonable Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 13 Search and Seizure Generally, for a search by the police to be lawful, a search warrant must be issued. The Supreme Court of Canada has decided that warrants are required in the following situations: Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education 14 Limited.  Power to Detain and Arrest Pretrial custody ensures people show up to trial Police officers can arrest a suspect without an arrest warrant when Belief that a person is about Caught to commit an committing an indictable offence offence Belief that Anti-terrorism person has Act: arrest on committed an suspicion indictable rather than offence reasonable grounds Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 15 Professional Model of Policing Professional model of policing: A model of police work that is reactive, incident- driven, and centred on random patrol based on the three Rs: random patrol, rapid response, and reactive investigation ↳ Heat tech Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 16 Community Policing Community policing: A philosophy of policing centred on police– community partnerships and problem-solving * the fake cops curorts Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education 17 Limited.  Crime Analytics Crime analysts use sophisticated statistical programs to create crime maps and to provide intelligence to police officers in patrol and investigative units. Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 18 Public Attitudes toward and Confidence in the Police Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 19 Police–Community Partnerships Community surveys have consistently found high levels of public support for the police and an expectation that police services will engage in proactive, preventive policing as well as reactive, enforcement-related activities. Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 20  Crime Prevention Programs Crime prevention programs are generally aimed at reducing crime, generating community involvement in addressing general and specific crime problems, and heightening citizens’ perceptions of safety. Primary + Secondary + Tertiary crime prevention programs - Don't make yourself attractive for crim - CPTED - Areas focus Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education 21 - Reoffending prevention Limited.  Effectiveness of Crime Prevention Programs Crime Prevention Program Effective? Primary Yes ??? No Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) ✔ Closed-circuit television (CCTV) ✔ Neighbourhood Watch ✔ Secondary Yes ??? No Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) ✔ Police school liaison officer programs ✔ Community mobilization ✔ Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 22 The Broken Windows Approach The view that if minor crimes are left unaddressed in an environment, more serious crime will emerge originated in New York City in the 1980s Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 23  Zero-Tolerance Policing Zero-tolerance policing: The key principle is that a strict order-maintenance approach by the police in a specific area, coupled with high police visibility and presence, with a focus on disorder and minor infractions, will reduce more serious criminal activity. Quality-of-life policing: Increased police visibility and efforts to improve conditions in an area by targeting disruptive and annoying behaviour such as panhandling, loitering, and public drug and alcohol use Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 24  Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) A tactical strategy based on the idea that the police should address the causes of recurrent crime and disorder Crime can be displaced with focus on one community Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education 25 Limited.  Crime Attack Strategies Proactive operations used by the police to target and apprehend criminal offenders, especially those deemed likely to reoffend, and to identify specific areas or neighbourhoods. These include Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education 26 Limited. Effectiveness of Crime Response and Attack Strategies Effective? Crime Response Strategies Yes ??? No Problem-oriented policing (POP) ✔ Broken windows theory ✔ Zero-tolerance/quality-of-life policing ✔ Crime Attack Strategies Yes ??? No Tactical-directed patrol ✔ Hot spots policing ✔ Foot patrols ✔ * How we measure/who we ask Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Limited. 27  Clearance Rates Clearance rates: to suspect - Crimes reported leading Crime displacement: -moving crime Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education 28 Limited.