NCJ Number
157777
Date Published
1994
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This essay focuses on an historical period, the 1920's, when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) faced the possibility of being disbanded, but emerged by the mid-1930's as the provincial police force in most Canadian provinces.
Abstract
The essay reviews the early development of provincial policing in Canada, and discusses the fact that Canadian policing more closely resembles the model of the continental European countries than that of the decentralized American or British forces. The RCMP was created in 1920 through the merger of the Dominion Police and the Royal North-West Mounted Police, in an atmosphere of crisis precipitated by the Winnipeg General Strike. The outcome of the debate over the future role of the RCMP was the distinctly Canadian creation of a single integrated Federal-provincial police force. The situation of the RCMP is unique in that its duties are far more extensive than any other North American law enforcement agency, but its officers operate as provincial police entirely at the discretion of the provincial governments. 35 notes