"To Serve And Protect" goes the mantra of many a Canadian Police Force. . . Sir Robert Peel, the founding father of modern policing, that inspired this mantra. Peel set down nine principles upon which he believed policing should be based. . .

One of those principles, which seems to have been forgotten by North American police forces, is this:

"Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence."

[. . . .] What disturbs is the trend that I see of many police officers believing that somehow, they are set apart from the public, and in fact, are the masters. I used to be evaluated by supervisors, not based upon my rapport that I had carefully and slowly built up with criminals, community members, children, and parents, but by how many charges or tickets I wrote. Quotas of course, don't exist. Instead of quotas, we had "benchmarks." A nice semantical term to deny there are quotas. I recall one long evaluation session in which I was told that I "did not make full use of my legislated authority" because I had not met the benchmark that was expected for writing tickets.

[. . . . ] What would make most police officers' jobs easier for them would be to ensure that before every shift, the parading Sergeant has them recite Peel's Principles. Police Officers should then be evaluated on whether or not their actions and attitudes while on patrol, are in tune with those principles. Perhaps Pierre Lemieux is correct - it's time to disarm the cops (quebecoislibre)

*For Peel's Principles, see this page hosted on the New Westminster Police site