The mandate and activities of a specialized crime reduction policing unit in Canada

Abstract

There has been a lexical shift in policing terminology from ‘crime prevention’ to ‘crime reduction.’ Still, the overarching goals continue to include addressing crime and disorder and providing public protection. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has developed specialized crime reduction units (CRUs) as one strategy to achieve these objectives; however, there has been limited research on these units’ mandates and crime reduction strategies in a Canadian policing context. This paper presents the findings of qualitative interviews and descriptive statistics collected from one RCMP CRU to examine how the Unit’s officers articulated the specific tasks established in their mandate and whether their policing activities reflected the mandate’s distinctive objectives. Results suggest that communication and human resource challenges led to officers’ tentativeness in expressing their Unit’s mandate and the teams’ restricted use of analytical tools, respectively. This research has implications for policing agencies seeking to develop specialized CRUs.

Keywords:

• Crime reduction
• specialized police units
• mandate
• partnerships

Notes

1. Not all positions had been filled at the time of the interviews and the Unit was still recruiting members.

2. This research was reviewed and approved by the University of the Fraser Valley’s Research Ethics Board.

3. At the time of the interviews, the detachment had recruited several new analysts for training. Based on the loss of analysts experienced prior to the commencement of this research, it is imperative that the RCMP recognizes the value of crime analysts in crime reduction strategies and continues to invest the necessary resources into acquiring, welcoming, and retaining these civilian members.