Current Issues and Future Challenges in Aboriginal Policing (From Self-Sufficiency in Northern Justice Issues, P 149-162, 1992, Curt Taylor Griffiths, ed. -- See NCJ- 141302)

• NCJ Number: 141307
• Author(s): A Findlay; A W Mahon; J Young
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Northern Justice Soc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: From a workshop at the fifth meeting of the Northern Justice Society held in Sitka, Alaska, April 1991.

Annotation

Police officers who represent the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Calgary Police Service address issues related to relationships between police and aboriginal communities.

Abstract

The key to the effective policing of native communities by non-Native police is communication between the police and representatives of the community. In Alberta, for example, a Native elders committee meets quarterly with the commanding officer of the police agency. The officer seeks input from the elders regarding policing problems in the Province. There are also community advisory committees in some areas. At the national level, the Commissioner's Advisory Committee is composed of aboriginal people. They recently visited the RCMP training depot in Regina and were given an overview of the police training program. They recommended some additions to the cross-cultural training of officers who may serve in aboriginal communities. One of the problems in the policing of Native communities is that regular constables are posted in a northern community for a 2-year limit. This means that by the time officers have become experienced and knowledgeable in the policing of Native communities, they are transferred. Efforts to recruit more Native people into policing have been hampered by attitudes in Native communities. Many Natives feel they are too uneducated and unskilled to be police officers. Some also fear the police. Native police officers must assume the leadership in addressing these attitudes and in encouraging more Natives to enter policing. 5 resource readings