Traditional policing alone must no longer as a solution for crime.
A paper published in the University of Toronto’s journal Canadian Public Policy in Dec. 2023 examined a decade of data from 20 Canadian municipalities and found no relationship between police spending and crime rates.
In an interview with the Toronto Star, Associate Professor at Rutgers University’s school of criminal justice Brenden Beck notes police today have to respond to a greater variety and quantity of problems than they once did. In 2021, in most police jurisdictions in Ontario, as many as 40 per cent of calls to police involved persons with mental health issues.
A survey conducted in 2020 found that younger Canadians, on average, have less favourable opinions of the police than do their counterparts from older generations. This perspective is possibly, at least in part, attributable to a growing understanding of the overrepresentation of of Indigenous and other marginalized communities in the Canadian criminal justice system.
Given the evolving landscape of problems police must respond to, the history of the institution of policing, and their declining reputation among younger and marginalized populations, proceeding with traditional police budgets and practices isn’t the way forward.
In July 2023, the City of Ottawa approved a plan for an alternative emergency number to 911 and a 24-hour community-based response team of mental health professionals responding to calls related to mental health distress and substance abuse. Reallocating police funds towards teams of social workers and mental health professionals responding to mental health calls could produce more desirable outcomes and less unnecessary police violence.
The expansion of Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Teams, which consist of one police officer and an experienced mental health professional, across Ontario is a promising beginning.
The most effective responses to crime must also acknowledge its roots. Crime doesn’t arise out of nowhere, it’s bred by economic, political, and social inequity.
Police funds could be redirected towards initiatives that produce healthier communities. Anti-bullying programs, mentoring, access to mental health resources, cognitive behavioural therapy, parenting programs, and other early interventions could intercept crime at its points of origin.
Though abolishing police forces may be appealing in theory, it isn’t feasible without alternative systems in place. Armed intervention, though not ideal, is in some cases necessary.
Where reallocating police funds towards mental health response teams or early intervention programs isn’t possible, we must seek to provide police the training they’re missing.
Police should be trained to match the needs of their communities. Rather than using funding to purchase large guns and armoured vehicles, officers should be made aware of the challenges community face and how to interact with individuals experiencing mental health and substance abuse crises.
The portrayal of police as a violent, militant body with access to unlimited financial resources and weapons doesn’t make community feel safe, nor does it reduce crime.
—Journal Editorial Board
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