Community policing: The views of police executives in British Columbia

After reviewing the development of community policing in Canada and research on police leadership, this article details the results of an exploratory study which assesses the view of all municipal police leaders in British Columbia towards community policing. The police leaders comprised of 19 Officers in Charge (OIC's) of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) municipal police detachments and 12 Chief Constables from independent municipal police departments. The results show that while the police leaders are supportive of the movement towards community policing, both OIC's and chief constables argue for gradual, slow, incremental change. However, it is the RCMP officers who are anticipating more resistance to change from both subordinates and the organizational structure of the force. The article concludes that there exists not one type of police leadership in BC but two, characterised by the organizational structure in which the executive officer is working.