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Is police corruption less of a problem in Canada than in the United States?
I've always wondered about authenticity to this.. I guess you could call it a stereotype. There's been pictures comparing a Canadian officer in Toronto participating in a water gun battle, which turned out to be the Pride event, against a picture of the picture of Lt. Pike watering his garden of students with pepper spray. That is a powerful contrast. But I understand the power of rhetoric. This could be truth expressed with the comparison of two extremes, or it could be distortion.
It has even affected me on a personal level, where I feel infuriated when I see video clips originating from the United States of police members tax collecting and not protecting and serving. That is as opposed to my reaction to the similar situations except these videos originating in Canada. My reaction to those videos is that I see them as just one or two rotten apples in a truckload full of good apples. I've personally felt obligated to defend the police in YouTube comments when there was a video of the news that a Canadian officer was stabbed and was expected to recover.
Before I go onto looking at actual numbers like I've been studying during my university study months, I want to see what you have to say about this. Is police corruption less of a problem in Canada than in the United States? Or maybe, is police corruption even a significant problem in the United States? I'm talking about the possibility that YouTube is filled with videos that highlight the rainy moments in American policing, without the context that the majority of American police members may have some sense of decency.
4 Answers
- Anonymous9 years agoFavourite answer
all people, everywhere, are susceptible to corruption
- Jim BLv 79 years ago
I`ll answer in two parts.
Canada is rated as one of the LEAST corrupt countries, in the world. Do a goggle on that phrase, and see what comes up.
Second, the hiring standards, for Police recruits in Canada, versus the USA are clearly higher.
Not just in terms of the education required, but much more importantly, the moral standards that are expected of Police officers here. Background checks are detailed and are carried out by experienced investigators, from the Police Service that is doing the hiring. They go right back to public school and checkneighborss, teachers, employers andreferencee providers. For a potential recruit to get to even a face to face interview, that person has to have a clean past and be aexceptionallyy qualifiedcandidatee. Large Police services in Canada, like the RCMP, or Toronto city, or Calgary, get hundreds of applicants per year, from which to choose their future officers.
In the USA, many of the smaller Police agencies, like countysherifff departments, or town Police, have very limited budgets, and training courses are short and minimal. They also tend torecruitt from the local area, and it is common to see family memberssurvivef along side each other, which tends to encourage lax discipline, and corruption. The stereo typical Georgiasherifff that runs his area like afeudall lord, is not just seen in the movies, they really do exist. In some cases an entire city Police force is corrupt, such as New Orleans, Louisiana. In the 90;s the NOPD was famous for it;`s brutality and lawless Police officers. During Hurricanes the NOPD was right there looting and stealing, along with the citizens.
In Canada, we have a much stronger oversight and investigative power of all levels of Police than in the USA. Provincial Special Investigations units, that take over cases, where a person has died in Police custody, or while being arrested, have strong powers to make sure that Police act in a professional andlaw fulll way. In the USA many Policeorganizationss investigate themselves, which does not help their image, with public or the media.
Another thing that works well in Canada is the standardization of training and polices, and even uniform styles, and vehicle appearance, that makes it easy for the public to recognize a Canadian Police officer on sight.
We also have a much higher number of both females, and visible minorities, in Canadian Policing, than in the USA. HavingPolicee officers who can speak a foreign language, is a good thing, but in the USA that usually only applies to speaking Spanish. How many US POlice do you think can speak Cantonese, or Hindi, or Malay....... Not very many, I think.
Corruption is a way of life in some countries, like India, where EVERYONE expects a bribe , to be paid or given, to get anything done, in any official transaction. That state of mind comes to Canada, where it meets the Canadian system of honesty, and some times it takes a few years for the lesson to sink in. Handing a Canadian traffic officer a drivers license, wrapped in a 100 dollar bill, is going to get you arrested every time, while in Alabama, it may get you out of that speeding ticket, if the officer is only making $30k a year. Low wages and low morals combine to create corruption down there.
JIm B
Toronto.
