To Regionalize or Not to Regionalize? A Study in the Politics of Policing in the Greater Vancouver Regional District

Abstract

Regionalization has been a feature of Canadian policing over the past thirty years, but policing arrangements in the Greater Vancouver Regional District remain largely decentralized and relatively fragmented. This paper considers why this is the case and in doing so supports the view that decisions about police amalgamations and regionalization are ultimately dependent upon political, rather than administrative, choices. The preference for police rationalization over regionalization in British Columbia (BC) is examined as a political compromise, which at the same time has produced a practical model for future developments in police regionalization in the province and elsewhere.

Keywords:

• Police Regionalization
• Police Rationalization
• Police Amalgamation
• British Columbia
• England and Wales
• Greater Vancouver

Notes

[1] The GVRD refers to ‘a partnership of 21 municipalities and one electoral area that make up the metropolitan area of Greater Vancouver.’ There are a number of services provided through partnerships at the GVRD level, including utility services, housing, and planning but there is not an amalgamated GVRD Police Department (see GVRD website: http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/about/index.htm). The GVRD is one of 28 regional districts within BC (Bish & Clemens, 1999). It is the most highly populated region in the province with an estimated 2.2 million of the total BC population of 4.2 million (BC Stats, 2004).

[2] Except in Ontario, where this is provided by the Ontario Provincial Police and in Quebec, where it is provided by the SÛreté du Québec. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is an anomaly in provincial policing terms; it is a provincial force but operates more like a city department for three municipalities in the province, with the RCMP providing provincial services under contract (Seagrave, 1997). The RCMP also provides the only public police service in the three Territories in the north of the country.

[3] Murphy (1991) suggests that ‘provincialization,’ that is, the amalgamation of all police units into a single provincial department, is beyond regionalization.

[4] However, Oppal (1994) notes that this has a somewhat limited impact because RCMP officers are still trained at their own establishments rather than the JIBC.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dominic A. Wood

Dr Dominic Wood is the Director of the Policing Framework of academic programmes delivered by the Department of Crime and Policing Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK. He has been teaching on a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) Policing programme for 10 years and recently spent a year on a sabbatical based at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. His research interests focus on the political aspects of the police role in society.