Matthew Sheehy

Police Must Act to Protect Themselves or Risk Being Without a Chair When The Music Stops

"To recognize always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behavior, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect."-- Robert Peel Robert Peel is the acknowledged father of modern policing. His philosophy of policing was revolutionary, rooted in a bottom-up rather than top-down mindset. Service, goodwill, and cooperation rather than fear and coercion were the key. Peel saw police as an extension of the community rather than a ruling appendage. This idea was an extension of another, even more revolutionary concept, that the legitimacy of government is derived from the consent of the governed. 

Police Caught in the Middle

Covid-19 has made law enforcement more difficult. Crime rates have not abated but social tension, mental breakdowns, and Covid restrictions have increased dramatically. Covid has put police in a position of enforcing rules, mandates, and regulations as if they are laws. Few of these have yet been challenged under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The public has generally complied given the unprecedented nature of the pandemic. But as two weeks to flatten the curve turned to two years of lockdowns, the populace is getting cranky and less compliant.