Analysis: The Blue Line Of Policing In Canada

University of Ottawa

The Blue Line or the Bottom Line of Police Services in Canada? Arresting runaway growth in costs

Jarred Brundige

6077461

CRM2305 A

Jeffrey Monaghan

October 19, 2015

A research document, “The Blue Line or the Bottom Line of Policing in Canada? Arresting runaway growth in cost” written by professor Christian Leuprecht, provides insight into Canada’s costly policing system. Leuprecht explains that the current cost of policing is unsustainable, as “police budgets have increased at a rate double that of GDP...” (2). According to Leuprecht, this growth in spending is greatly associated with the changing nature of the profession, over paid salaries, and inefficiencies within the policing system.

Alternative service delivery allows trained, skilled civilians and private security companies to perform functions associated with policing that are not inherently dangerous. This will allow a portion of police work to be carried out at a fraction of the cost. I believe this is a practicable solution to reducing overall cost of policing. By outsourcing jobs to trained civilians, not only could police reduce expenditures but also focus on performing primary police functions, which would create more efficiency. However this could be hard to implement, as individuals may reject the authority of these civilian authorities. It should also be noted that these outsourced civilian workers do not share the same protection against civil liabilities than public police officers, therefore there is potential for

Leuprecht points out that there are many ineffective practices disturbing a smoother system, which in turn is causing financial waste. Leuprecht explains that having multiple call centers across the country instead of one call center where all resources are pooled together is costing money and is inefficient (14). He also mentions how all EMS, fire fighters, and police could all be cross-trained in order to work more efficiently when being called to emergencies (15). Leuprecht points out that there is an insufficient use of technology. He suggests using new technologies could reduce the amount of administration difficulties as well as facilitate data sharing across levels of policing and police forces (19-20). Leuprecht also mentions that the police bureaucracy is run by sworn police members who receive high compensation for work that could be outsourced to individuals at a cheaper price. All of these aforementioned malpractices and inefficiencies have manageable solutions that could be implemented with a degree of