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Comparing police work in Canada and the UK
by Scott Gilbreath ~ December 27th, 2008
Pseudonymous British blogger-bobby PC David Copperfield moved to Edmonton, Alberta, about a year ago. Some people have asked him about the main differences between policing in the UK and in Canada.
Much police work remains the same, of course, but there are notable differences. British police have more powers (to stop, search, arrest) but are bound by bureaucratic rules, procedures, and policies.
I certainly have fewer powers than I did before:
-I’m not allowed to arrest suspects, I have to have (in UK terms) sufficient evidence to charge before I can arrest.
-I can’t put people on Police bail, it’s not a concept that exists here.
-I can’t Stop and Search people.
-I can’t normally search people’s houses without a warrant.
The most essential difference, he says, is discretion: Canadian cops have it, British ones don’t.
What I now have that I didn’t before, is discretion: I’m able to give each incident the attention it merits and I’m not bound by the need to meet government targets. If you add to that decent mobile IT systems, an arrest/charge procedure with 90% less bureacracy, and proper opportunites to do some proactive patrolling, you can begin to get an idea of what the job’s like.
This is his parting shot:
Here are a few things that I do now, that I never used to do:
-Write traffic tickets
-Proactively patrol
-Use my own judgement
British cops don’t get to use their own judgment? Maybe that’s why they’re so bonkers.
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December 28th, 2008 at 11:07 PM
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