Role of Police Boards and Commissions as Institutions of Municipal Police Governance (From Organizational Police Deviance - Its Structure and Control, P 161-208, 1981, Clifford D Shearing, ed. - See NCJ-85562)

• NCJ Number: 85569
• Author(s): P C Stenning
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 48 pages
• Sale Source: Butterworth
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented as a paper of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, June 4, 1980

Annotation

The essay focuses on the evolution, role and status of local Canadian police boards as the governing authority for many municipal police forces and touches on the role of Provincial police commissions.

Abstract

It begins by describing the historical origins of modern municipal police forces, emphasizing the traditional connections between the police and the lower judiciary. It describes the development of police boards and discusses some explanations for the original adoption of this mode of police governance. The discussion focuses on two themes -- the shift from judicial to nonjudicial control of the police and the struggle between Provincial and municipal governments for domination over the police governance structure. The essay also describes the current variety of boards and their mandate and functions. It discusses four significant influences on the board's role in governing their forces: the notion of police independence, the concept of police professionalism, the rise of police unionism, and the resurgence of Provincial influence over municipal institutions. Board accountability, particularly in Ontario, is addressed, with attention to the issue of the role of politics in governing municipal police forces and the different positions now taken on this controversial issue. The article considers the extent to which this debate has been colored by the historical association between the police and the judiciary. Notes and about 40 references are included.