Police: Urban Policing in Canada

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

Surprisingly little has been written about the history and practice of police work in Canada. John Sewell, former Toronto alderman and mayor, writes out of an intimate acquaintance with the workings of an urban police force. He describes the development of urban policing; the difficulty of defining “crime” and the varying perceptions of what it is and what should and can be done about it; the making, maintenance and morale of a police force; and some of the things that ought to be done in order to reform today’s police. To criticise the workings of the police is not to attack them, Sewell insists. He offers his explanation of the tendency of police in general to be somewhat reactionary in attitude; the difficulties of recruitment from among the ethnic minority population; the occasional instance of police wrongdoing; and the rise of “private policing” among those able to afford this form of special protection. Some of his findings are surprising (e.g., that those most often the victims of crime are men and young persons, but that those who suffer most from the fear of crime are women and the elderly). Those who have taken a complex and very necessary service for granted will find here a rude awakening as to the activities, efficiency, and motivation of a large and powerful societal force.