While going through some old threads, I read in GQ that only three of Canada’s ten provinces have their own police forces. The rest contract out policing duties to the RCMP. I’ve got a number of questions:
–Why? Certainly provinces like Alberta and BC can afford their own forces rather than leaving it up to a force headquarted across the country. Did these provinces ever have their own forces?
–I’m pretty sure this has never happened with an American state. Is that for constitutional issues or just practicality?
–Do German/Australian/etc. states have their own police forces?
In Germany, each state has his own police. There is no further sub-division; all that stuff about having a sheriff instead of or together with police, or the PD of one town being known as incompetent always leave me puzzled. The head of the police is the minister of interior for each state. Police officers are always centrally educated and trained, so there are no backwoods cops that have less training than the city cops (they might have less practise in some areas, though). An overview is here, notice the ensigns with the coat of arms for each state. Until some years ago, each state also had different uniform colours, which was of course stupid because a North German on visit in the South got confused as to how a cop looked like, so they finally got their act together and decided on dark blue (although, I think that was not a good colour choice).
There is a federal police, Bundeskriminalpolizei, to aid in serious crimes and crimes across states. They cooperate with the Landeskriminalamt (state crime office). Above that, there’s INTERPOL of course and Europol. (European police).
Trivia: there are TV series about cops in certain cities:
Rosenheim Cops
Der Bulle von Tölz (about one detective)
Hafenpolizei (Hamburg)
Großstadtrevier
but also Eurocops, a series about detectives in different European countries, produced and broadcast in different countries!
INTERPOL is not a police organization and has no criminal jurisdiction anywhere. They are a clearinghouse for information on fugitives and criminal transactions.
Some of the other provinces used to have provincial police forces, and there was a Dominion Police force, also run by the feds. The Mounties were originally only in the west.
There were issues about professionalism and corruption in some of the provincial police forces, plus the feds simply had more resources for training purposes. The NWMP => RNWMP => RCMP had a better reputation, plus the costs of running separate polices forces, all acted towards the smaller provinces abolishing their police forces and contracting into the services provided by the RCMP. Some members of the provincial police forces (e.g. the Saskatchewan Police) and the Dominion Police were absorbed into the RCMP. I’m going by memory, but I think the consolidation started in the 1920s and was hastened by the Great Depression, which hit the western provinces particularly hard.
Sure there is. There are also municipal police forces, known variously as Stadtpolizei, Ordnungsamt, or Ordnungsdienst. They tend to be responsible for policing misdemeanors and civil infractions, for more serious crimes they generally have to involve the state cops.
I don’t understand why the lack of uniformity is “stupid.” In the United States, every law enforcement operation has a different uniform and people don’t have problems recognizing a cop in uniform.
I’ll say. In the Washington, DC area, there is a rainbow of law enforcement uniforms. Black, brown, blue, tan. In Fairfax County, the “Fairfax County Police” wear tan shirts, but the “Fairfax County Sheriff’s Department” deputies wear brown. The City of Fairfax police wear blue. Falls Church has badass looking black uniforms. DC itself has the Metropolitan Police, US Park Police, and a few other agencies, all in one city.
Yeah, D.C. is infamous for having tons of police forces (I think I counted over 20 once, although some have been folded up in recent years–for example I don’t believe the Library of Congress has its own legitimately separate police force any longer 
); and seeing police all over the country I’ve never had trouble identifying them.
In America I would say dark blue is the default color, but dark green, tan, and black uniforms aren’t uncommon either.
Even bicycle police who typically are dressed in athletic ware I find fairly easy to identify, mostly because bicycle police have the words POLICE in huge letters on their clothes, a badge, and a .45 on their hip in plain sight.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t think anyone has mentioned the fact that in Canada, criminal law is strictly federal. So a national police force makes sense. The one dealing I ever had with the RCMP left me convinced that they (well he) was abominably stupid.
Each of the six Australian states has its own police force, as does the Northern Territory. The Australian Federal Police force serves the ACT and other territories (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island etc), as well as enforcing Commonwealth law.
Just read in the Georgia Straight today that the Feds are negotiating the contract currently with the relevant provinces. Apparently the Feds subsidize the provincial policing - something like 70% paid by the Feds and 30% paid by the province. Is that the reason provinces use the RCMP? To get the subsidy?
I am not an absolute expert but I don’t think that is allowed in the U.S. at least on a large scale. Most criminal matters and most police matters overall are based on state law. Each state has to have their own police force one way or another to enforce its own laws. The federal government helps states sometimes in solving certain state crimes but it is still under state police jurisdiction. Federal police like the FBI generally only get involved in certain types of crimes that involve multiple states like kidnapping or harm to a federal employee or federal property. They are two different systems . You charged in both for certain crimes but they are still very separate. The closest you see to that in the U.S. are the Sherriff’s Department and State Troopers that have jurisdiction anywhere in the state including unincorporated areas without their own police department. I am not sure if federal law enforcement agents can make a true police arrest for a purely state crime other than a citizen’s arrest that anyone can do.
It’s the state’s choice. Some give them that authority, and some don’t. It looks like most give them some authority.
This is Wiki’s list of police agencies within the District of Columbia. The only one that might not have uniformed cops on duty in the District, AFAICT, is the Federal Bureau of Prisons. DC doesn’t have a Federal Prison.
There might even be others not listed. I see that the Army’s MPs and CID are both listed. Similarly the Navy has NCIS, but the “Shore Patrol” isn’t. Maybe Navy people can tell me whether the SP is an organization in itself, or are people in the SP just assigned out of some pool of available Navy personnel as needed?
- District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department
- United States Marshals
- District of Columbia Department of Corrections
- District of Columbia Housing Authority Office of Public Safety
- Metro Transit Police Department
- Washington National Cathedral Police (yes, a church with its own police force)
- District of Columbia Protective Services Police Department
- United States Capitol Police
- United States Secret Service Uniformed Division
- Supreme Court Police
- United States Park Police
- Smithsonian Police
- United States State Department Diplomatic Security Service
- United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service
- United States Army Criminal Investigative Command
- United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations
- United States Coast Guard Investigative Service
- United States Mint Police
- Bureau of Engraving and Printing
- United States Postal Inspection Service (Federal Postal Inspectors)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation Police
- Government Printing Office Uniformed Police Branch
- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
- Federal Bureau of Prisons
- Drug Enforcement Administration
- United States Army Military Police
- American University Department of Public Safety
- Catholic University Department of Public Safety
- Gallaudet University Department of Public Safety
- George Washington University Police Department
- Georgetown University Department of Public Safety
- Howard University Campus Police
- University of the District of Columbia Police Department
Here’s more on the abolition of the Saskatchewan Provincial Police and the trend away from provincial police forces during the Depression, from the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan:
We sure are nuts about police forces here in the US. Even here in Madison (the state capital) there are 5 that I know of – the city police, the State Capital police, Dane County Sheriff, State Troopers, and University of Wisconsin police.
(Not counting any Federal cops that might be hanging out on the local Federal properties).
So, this whole thing with the German cops all going dark blue… is that maybe because of the prevalence of American cop dramas, considering that dark blue is the default American cop uniform color? If so, that’s very funny.
No, it’s because every other police force in the European Union uses blue uniforms. Germany was the odd man out.
I’ve never encountered Stadtpolizei, and I don’t consider the guys from the Ordnungsamt who watch over littering and noise levels proper cops. They also don’t have special uniforms usually.
shudder while US TV series are popular with the general population, most people would not want any resemblance to US law enforcement over here, thank you very much no. We prefer professional trained cops not playing the law-and-order type, but “your friend and helper” type.
In the 50s and 60s, German cops were the law-and-order type, beating people at demonstrations, but after a highly publicized death and general outrage that citizens in a democracy have the right to demonstrate, and not only long-haired hippies are doing this, so decent behaviour by the police should be shown, and this lead to a change in how police perceived itself, what tactics were taught and so on.