Conclusion

• Author: Kent Roach
• Pages: 173-191

| 173

ten

Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

We have known since the s that Canadian public police are failing

Indigenous people by both overpolicing and underprotecting them. As

argued in Chapter , we now know that such a vicious circle aects many

other, sometimes intersecting, disadvantaged groups. is vicious circle

reects systemic discrimination, stereotypes, and growing inequality.

Over the last thirty years, we have responded to (increasingly videoed)

acts of police misconduct with a growing array of aer-the-fact accountability

mechanisms. e result is that police ocers can face “quadruple jeopardy”

when accused of misconduct. at may be the price that must be paid for

maintaining the rule of law. Nevertheless, as argued in Chapter , such expen-

sive and legalistic measures have not improved policing or even prevented

repetitive acts of misconduct. Lawyers seem to have proted more from the

police accountability industry than the public and the disadvantaged. Exces-

sive reliance on aer-the-fact accountability can also cause the police “to abdi-

cate their own responsibility to self-regulate conduct and maintain public

trust and condence.” is set of aairs has been aggravated by the under-

goverance of police conduct by multiple levels of government as explained in

Chapter  and as was clearly demonstrated during the February  “Free-

dom” occupations and blockades.

Demands to defund the police in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and

events in Canada in June  have been rejected, even though the Harper

Conservative government in  had issued evidence-based warnings that

expanding police budgets were not sustainable. Ontario premier, Doug Ford,

174 | Canadian PoliCing: Why and hoW it Must Change

was quick to dismiss defunding demands even while his province required

communities to prepare community safety and well-being plans that rightly

recognized the need for police to work with other public and community

agencies that have been underfunded compared to the police.

President Barack Obama warned that while “defund the police” may be a

“snappy” slogan, it could alienate and even scare many. He recognized the cen-

trality of politics to reform when he stated: “e key is deciding, do you want

to actually get something done, or do you want to feel good among the people

you already agree with?” In other words, can the necessary constituencies and

political will be cobbled together to achieve fundamental change in policing ?

THE NEED FOR A BROAD-BASED, EVIDENCE-DRIVEN

REFORM COALITION

ose who want fundamental change in Canadian policing should not be shy

about combining arguments about cost-eectiveness with arguments about

the need for less violent, less discriminatory, and, ultimately, more eective

policing.

Reform coalitions must include representatives of communities that are

both overpoliced and underprotected. e Rethinking Community Safety

report released in early  and approved by more than twenty community

groups in Toronto, including Black Lives Matter, is a good place to start.

Community groups and Indigenous people — not the police — are the

experts at doing more with less. As discussed in Chapter , this impressive

report demonstrates what could have been done with a proposed  percent

cut to the Toronto police budget that was defeated by a : vote in the

Toronto’s shrunken City council. e twenty-four-page report outperforms

Toronto’s uninspired S a f eTO  community safety plan with concrete proposals

backed by research to justify taking tasks from the police in relation to mental

health and the unhoused and transferring them to others who are unarmed,

more expert, and less expensive. It pragmatically argues that such a response

would be more cost-eective and less violent and discriminatory.

Transferring functions from the police to other public and community

agencies must be done properly and must be evaluated. It would be naïve

and dangerous to assume that child, youth, housing, educational, and health

authorities may not have their own failures, including systemic discrimination.

As one police respondent told researchers, it is dicult “to download certain