If Harry moved to Vancouver or anywhere else in Canada, he’d have exactly the same rights to protection as anyone else, but no more. For example, if someone threatened him, they could be subject to a restraining order and/or arrest.
Protection against getting shot is largely achieved in Canada by strong gun control. Handguns are severely restricted, and anyone walking around town with a rifle would be immediately detained. If Harry wants special protection beyond that offered an ordinary citizen, he’d have to pay for it himself, just as he would in the UK and in the US. In the UK he’d actually get extra protection at taxpayer expense, just not as much as a so-called “working” royal.
Presumably it depends on size. If Taylor and Travis want to turn up with their parents and best man, and get married there is not much the city of NY can do.
But this is not that, presumably. At some point the number of friends, relations, security, hangers on, band, acrobats, fire breathers, etc. will reach the point that they will need some kind of license from the city which can be denied.
I can do that off duty. But not if I’m in the employee of someone else such as a private security firm or detective agency.
ETA: it doesn’t matter what job it is. I could be slinging burgers at the local Mickey D’s. But per our SOP if I’m in the employee of someone else I lose my privilege to take police actions during such employment.
But police details do not put you in the “employ of someone else”. It’s just that someone else is paying the municipality a marked up price for your services. You’re still employed and supervised by the municipality, even if you are coordinating with the other organization to be effective. If anything you are directing the organization and their staff on what they need to do to minimize adverse impacts from their event or activity.
If we gave a store grand opening in a built up place and need (and in many cases the police department will unilaterally tell us that we need) police presence to direct the heavy traffic in and out of the shopping plaza, we will get a bill from the municipality for the police detail. We do not get to negotiate. Most of the time there is a minimum of four or six hours and at least two officers. A single event from 6pm to 8pm can easily cost $2000 in police details. If we are doing construction and oversized equipment is coming and going, we can geeky bills of $4000 a day for weeks on end for police details (a lot less in some places). That’s on top of 24 hour security so that our materials and equipment don’t get stolen or adventurous individuals don’t get into the construction site for shits and giggles.
This is how we have officers “working” 4000 hours a year, which of course they couldn’t for safety reasons. They are working 1-2 hours (as far as safety requirements go) but getting paid for 4-6 hours. One of my neighbors, a police officer, got paid $370k in 2021, averaging more than 70 hours a week, most of that overtime. Most of it from private details where the “purchaser” paid double what he made (because there’s a markup for the taxes, pension and retiree medical impact, plus an administrative fee).
I don’t know what things are like where you are, but this is the situation where I have dealt with it both from the private side and from the municipal finance/budget side (I’ve been on the finance board of two municipalities).
I would suppose Harry (or Oprah, or any number of other people) would not want security precautions so much as need them. For some people the threat would be severe enough to force any well-run police department to detail someone to keep things quiet.
Consider the case of a church or synagogue at least on some occasions, I would suppose the local police chief would tell his people to swing through their parking lot to make sure everything is OK. They do this free of charge.
In the same way, under some circumstances, a few police officers hanging with some bigwig might be a very practical way to prevent problems.
But I fear we have drifted into a discussion rather than a factual answer. There may not be one.
Apparently the total bill for the time he was in Canada before he stepped away from royal duties was over $300,000.
AFAIK police in private work can wear their uniform, but are paid overtime through an arrangement with the police department. That way, everyone wins. Event gets real police, public knows what rights the security has, and ploice get extra pay for the possible hassles they will encounter.
The issue with Harry or any private citizen was - police would respond to calls for things like trespassers harrassment with the same due care as any other citizen. If there are too many trespassers, or they are just looking for a pic of Harry looking annoyed shooing them away, that’s up to him to hire security. They are not going to provide a full time detail (once he’s no longer an official member of the head of state’s family). If you attract paparazzi, then presumably you have the means to hire protection. I’ can’t think off hand of a situation where someone wouldn’t, unless they became suddenly notorious. (Just watched series on Netflix about a notorious murder in Britain, and the husband - no implied guilt - had to move with his young son, to France then Spain because the paparazzi hounded him.)
Yes. He’s sidestepping what we are actually discussing. When you are paying for police protection you are not paying for a private security job. That is completely orthogonal to the discussion here. When a city, county, state or country is asking you to foot the bill for your own event or person, they are not talking about your job at McDonald’s or your job as a bouncer at a nightclub.
Not so. If it’s a big event requiring specific police to direct traffic, the city will bill the wedding planner for that.
Even dead people – the motorcycle officer that escorts the funeral procession from the church to the cemetery is billed to the funeral home. (And it’s expensive, since the city adds a hefty markup to what the officer is being paid, and then the funeral director adds a markup to the bill that the family eventually pays.)
Even if it was a Public safety officer or a Official? I assume Police officers families are not billed for the special funeral and the entourage ? Maybe the casket, etc?
In NYC , there are paid details that are sort of half and half - the officers are in uniform and assigned by the paid detail unit which also sets the pay rate and collects a fee but they are technically off-duty. I am almost 100% certain that the NYPD will have to indemnify the “off-duty” officer in any lawsuit and provide sick leave if the officer is injurred taking any police action while on this detail. They might be assigned to sport stadiums/concert venues, supermarkets, retail stores, banks, apartment or office buildings, pretty much any place other than bars/restaurants with a liquor license (there’s got to be some sort of special provisions for the venues which all serve at least beer and wine)
For public events, like the Thanksgiving Day parade or the ball drop in Times Square the city foots the bill , and for other events (like the NYC marathon) , the organizers reimburse the city for the costs. So if Kelce and Swift do get married at MSG, my guess is NYPD will assign officers outside to manage crowds, and any officers inside the building will be part of a paid detail.
Cheeto will be at MSG tomorrow night for Game 3 of the hoops finals. They’ve cxl’d the watch party outside the venue due to security perimeter issues & have told ticket holders to expect ‘TSA-style’ security screenings & to arrive two hours before the 8:30 tip off.
I’ve read a certain couple is getting married in the same location next month. While guests shouldn’t need to go thru that level of pat-down the venue absolutely should secure their entrances & make sure no on who isn’t authorized to be there that day is in the building which includes people who work there at other times, including hot-dog vendors & Knicks front office staff, etc.
Further, I can imagine hundreds, if not thousands of fans milling around outside trying to get a glimpse of her/them. With four different rail services right below the building in Penn Station that will be a transit nightmare with that many pedestrians just standing there. I can only assume that’s the city’s expense to pick up as she didn’t ask for all of those fans to attend. (though someone said they should sell tickets to sit in the stands & watch)
We would provide funeral escorts upon request with no charge. It’s generally a very short detail that doesn’t put too much of a strain on the department.
We are not allowed to have secondary employment in anything that may involve police work. That includes any kind of security. Security and traffic jobs can be assigned to those that wish to work. Those are contracted through the department. We are in uniform and subject to all rules and regulations of the department while working. We also have full police powers.
I’m not a constitutional scholar and I don’t want to turn this into a major hijack but it’s not that simple. There is caselaw stating any duty to protect is not part of an individual’s right to due process under the constitution. That mainly affects the ability to sue for violation of constitutional rights. However the constitution is not all a law enforcement officer works under. There are also state constitutions, state laws, in my state attorney general directives which have the force of law, department rules and regulations and possibly work contract violations. An officer can be disciplined, dismissed or possibly arrested for acts of malfeasance, misfeasance or nonfeasance.
The police have no more obligation to any “special” person than any other member of the public. There may be special cases for people who are government agents (secret service detail for the president, etc.) but in general, it’s up to the citizen to call police when there is an actual crime in progress. Anything beyond that would require that person to pay for the service.
Considering the paparazzi (on scooters or mopeds) took a long time - several minutes - to get to the crash site, at the time of the crash there was no reason to be doing highway speeds in the city at that point. Primary cause was careless (drunk) driving. Secondary cause might be the desire to ditch the paparazzi. But then, the paparazzi were not committing a crime.