TY - JOUR
AU - Walby,, Kevin
AB - Abstract This paper examines police militarization in Canada between 2007 and 2017. We contrast media and police accounts of militarization with special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team deployment records disclosed under freedom of information (FOI) law. Discourse analysis reveals a series of armoured vehicle purchases has been justified by police claims about the danger faced by police officers, and the need to keep police officers and the public safe. Media and police accounts thus suggest militarization is limited. However, our FOI research shows planned and unplanned deployment of SWAT teams have risen in major Canadian cities and are higher in some cases than those reported by Kraska on public police militarization in the USA. After revealing this juxtaposition between media rhetoric and the organization and operational reality of police militarization, we reflect on the implications of police militarization in Canada and the challenges that police may face in communications about armoured vehicle purchases as public awareness of SWAT team use rises and police legitimacy is questioned. Introduction Despite extensive attention paid towards police militarization in the USA (e.g. Kraska and Kappeler, 1997; Dodge et al., 2010) and debate about its normalization (Jefferson, 1990; Waddington, 1999; Den Heyer, 2014), the Canadian case has not been the subject of scholarly inquiry. This paper examines the status of police militarization in Canada between 2007 and 2017. We assume that militarization exists on a continuum, and that deployment of SWAT teams for routine police activity is the leading indicator. Building on Rantatalo’s (2016) effort to contrast cultural representations against police tactical unit’s work, we compare media and police accounts of militarization in Canada with disclosure of special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team deployment records. Media and police accounts in Canada suggest militarization is limited. In print media, armoured vehicle purchases have been rationalized by police claims about the current and increasing danger faced by police officers, and the need to keep the public safe. However, the organization and operational reality of police militarization differs from print media depictions. Disclosures under freedom of information (FOI) law reveal that deployments of SWAT teams have spiked in major Canadian cities and are higher in some cases than those reported by Kraska (2007) in the USA. Alvaro (2000) found the average yearly number of deployments by Canadian tactical units was 60 total per unit; two decades later we show that the average annual number of deployments by Canadian tactical units (as of 2017) is approximately 1,300 per unit. Additionally, SWAT teams in Canada are being used more for routine policing tasks including traffic stops, petty warrants, community policing, and response to mental health crises. The juxtaposition between media representations of SWAT practices and actual deployment data is significant because media messaging by public police shapes their legitimacy and public confidence in them (McGovern and Lee, 2010; Lee and McGovern, 2013). As prominent claims-makers about law and order issues, public police experience a unique relationship with media (Ericson, 1989; Mawby, 2010; Ellis and McGovern, 2016). If police communication staff present contradictory information to the public, it can increase a sense of risk, and decrease trust of police (Lee and McGovern, 2016). Rhetoric matters for gaining legitimacy, and trust (Côté-Lussier, 2013; Bieler, 2016). Thus, it is noteworthy for police, policymakers, and the public in Canada and elsewhere that our findings demonstrate a stark contrast between the rhetoric and the reality of police militarization. Not only do we highlight the extent of SWAT team deployment in Canada, we show how police communications about militarization downplay SWAT purchases and procurement and why this disparity represents a possible policy problem and potential police legitimacy crisis. First, we review literature on police militarization as well as police media framing and communications. After a note on method, we provide our analysis. We use discourse analysis and FOI requests to contrast the rhetoric and reality of police militarization in Canada. Finally, we reflect on the implications of police militarization in Canada and the challenges that police may face in communications about armoured vehicle purchases and increasing SWAT team use as public awareness rises and police legitimacy becomes questioned. Literature on militarization of public police Police militarization is vital to study for at least three reasons. First, many scholars claim militarization can shift the mission of the public police towards a more aggressive, forceful orientation (Kraska, 2007; Hill and Beger, 2009). Second, as Delehanty et al. (2017) find, police access to military weapons and vehicles is linked to increased fatalities from officer shootings. Third, as we reveal, comparing the media rhetoric and operational reality of police militarization provides a case study of how police communications can misrepresent operational police practices and organizational processes. Kraska (2007, p. 503) suggests police militarization can be studied by using ‘four dimensions of the military model’: material, cultural, organizational, and operational. The material dimension refers to the military-style equipment, weapons, and technologies used by police. The cultural dimension encompasses the appearance and language used by police, and the values that they communicate. The organizational dimension focuses on the SWAT teams that are structured to mimic military units. The operational dimension is concerned with the ‘patterns of activity’ (Kraska, 2007, p. 503) used by police that emulate those of the military, particularly in response to high-risk incidents. As it regards the material dimension, the trend of transferring military equipment and technology to the police has been ongoing for decades. Tasers for example were first used by the military, but are now used commonly by police forces (Kitchen and Rygiel, 2014; Salter, 2014). Phillips (2016) highlights that the trend is that a growing number of police forces acquire and expand access to military-style assault rifles to street-level officers (Haggerty and Ericson, 1999). Phillips argues that claims about ‘crime prevention, crime fighting and danger’ (Phillips, 2016, p. 186) have been used to justify the trend, but that they rely on questionable evidence. Although militarization may be visible to the public when police adopt military-style equipment, the ideology may permeate police departments in less overt ways (Kraska and Kappeler, 1997, p. 3). The cultural dimension of militarization includes elements such as police language and dress as well as beliefs they communicate (Kraska, 2007, p. 505). The narratives commonly utilized by the police in our sample below are reflective of what Phillips (2016) describes as ‘policing myths.’ Myths are ‘narratives or stories’ that draw on and reproduce societal values or ideologies through a ‘blend of truth and untruth’ (Phillips, 2016, p. 186). Police reiterate myths as a way of justifying their continued existence, accumulation of resources, and expansion. Phillips (2016, p. 188) argues that the police and the media take part in promoting the myths ‘that crime prevention, crime fighting, and danger are an integral part of policing’ despite evidence to the contrary. Below we apply discourse analysis to a sample of media articles on the recent armoured vehicle acquisitions of several Canadian police departments as a proxy for studying the cultural dimension of militarization. We juxtapose this focus on the cultural dimension of militarization with data on organizational and operational patterns. We treat the rise of police paramilitary units (PPUs) and SWAT teams in Canada is an indicator of the organizational dimension of militarization; their use in routine policing activities (typically the bailiwick of regular duty officers) is the operational pattern we report on. This is significant because as Kraska (2007, p. 506) describes, the traditional role of PPUs (and that portrayed to the public) is their ‘reactive deployment’ to dangerous or high-risk yet rare incidents including terrorism and hostage-takings. Yet police forces have further entrusted PPUs with tasks including carrying out drug raids, policing ‘hot spots’ (Kraska and Cubellis, 1997; Hill and Beger, 2009) ‘conducting traffic stops, executing petty warrants, crowd control duties’ (Hill et al., 2007, p. 305) and other routine policing activities that fall outside of the PPU mandate. Method and data To examine the cultural dimension of militarization (Kraska, 2007), discourse analysis was applied to a set of sampled media articles on armoured vehicle procurements. To complement this approach we used FOI requests to investigate the operational and organizational dimensions of militarization. Each data collection technique informed the other by providing supplementary data that would be missed using a single technique. Discourse analysis reveals how competing discourses shape the way in which people think and feel, as well as discover which discourses are promoted as truth (Waitt, 2005, p. 174). Since most individuals’ first-hand experiences with criminal justice are limited, external sources such as mass media are crucial to how the public understands discourses of crime and justice. Surette (2015, p. 35) describes claims-makers as those who forward ‘specific claims about a social condition,’ while claims themselves are explanations for how an issue should be understood. Claims-makers shape how an issue is constructed, and the policy solutions that follow. Mass and news media’s preference for constructions ‘that are dramatic, [that] are sponsored by powerful groups, and [that] are related to pre-established cultural themes’ (Surette, 2015, p. 34), means that more critical constructions do not receive a platform as often. Media articles on armoured vehicle procurements rather than PPU deployments were selected as our focus for two reasons. First, police procurements of armoured vehicles have been common in Canadian cities, and once purchased the vehicles have regularly fallen under the control of PPUs.1 Second, PPU deployments are rarely covered by media outlets, limiting their potential for insight into police activities. Analysis was limited to coverage of the procurements in Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and Fredericton as they were the most recent, and the most likely to be representative of the state of the cultural dimension of militarization related to Canadian police forces. Given their size, these cities also represent typical Canadian cities and act as typical cases in our sample.2 The sample was collected by searching for the term ‘armoured vehicle’ in the Lexis-Nexis and Canadian Reference Centre databases. Only articles that were published by major news outlets in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, or those published by national outlets were selected. This sampling strategy was meant to capture the narratives conveyed by news sources with high regional readership, as these sources could be expected to have the most significant impact on public discourse. Articles that did not focus on the armoured vehicle purchases in Saskatoon, Winnipeg, or Fredericton were removed. Due to limits in the availability of news sources found within the Lexis-Nexis and Canadian Reference Centre databases, the ‘armoured vehicle’ search term was also run through the search engines on the CBC News, Metro, and Winnipeg Sun websites. These news sources were selected because while they were not available in either of the databases, excluding them would mean overlooking other sizable news sources.3 The sample consisted of 30 articles, which while small is justifiable for the illustrative purposes of discourse analysis (Van der Valk, 2003; Waitt, 2005). FOI requests are an under-utilized method for conducting social science research (Walby and Larsen, 2012; Luscombe and Walby, 2015). They allow researchers to circumvent rhetoric by providing access to internal information that has not been subject to the same management process as official discourses disseminated to the public. FOI requests also afford an opportunity to conduct research on agencies that may not be accessible otherwise, such as policing agencies which sometimes decline participation in surveys. Terminology used to describe government records or practices in an FOI request should reflect that used by the subject agency because failing to do so may result in gaps or delays in disclosure. The access requests that we filed were worded as follows: Requesting all records pertaining to the [name of relevant police service and PPU’s name] frequency of deployment and type of deployment in each instance (e.g. executing search warrant, responding to call, etc.). Requesting all records pertaining to the number of officers assigned to the [name of relevant police service and PPU’s name]. To save time and control cost, each request was limited to include only the years of 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. By doing so, it was possible to track and measure the growth of the PPU/SWAT units and their number of deployments while avoiding barriers to using FOI. The rhetoric of police militarization in Canada Analysis revealed that the claims made in favour of the armoured vehicle purchases relied on two overlapping themes; the current and often increasing danger faced by police officers; and the need to keep police officers and the public safe. Claims made against the armoured vehicle purchases likewise fell primarily into two thematic categories; those critical of the potential militarization of the police; and in the case of Winnipeg’s armoured vehicle purchase, concerns over the cost and procurement process.4 Themes were established by identifying reoccurring keywords and ideas across the media articles (Ryan and Bernard, 2003). Phillips (2016, p. 188) contends that while incidents such as active shooters and terrorism are rare, danger myths persist because it is argued that ‘crime control activity and crime fighting tasks include a potential for danger’. As Phillips (2016, p. 187) points out though, it is easy to suggest that the ‘potential for danger’ is omnipresent and unpredictable, thus justifying additional resources to prepare for it. In our sample the danger theme followed a similar logic. Many police officers claimed that policing has become more dangerous, and that they are increasingly responding to high-risk incidents or executing more high-risk warrants. A statement by Saskatoon’s police chief that an armoured vehicle would be useful for ‘potentially lethal arrest warrants, standoffs and conflicts involving a suspect with a high-calibre weapon’ (in Hutton, 2011) likewise encapsulates an oft-repeated argument by police claims-makers. Some claims-makers gave ambiguous statements on the dangers faced by police such as Fredericton’s police chief who argued that purchasing an armoured vehicle was necessary for her force because policing around the globe has changed, making it necessary to prepare for a ‘worst-case scenario’ (in Fraser, 2016). Similarly, the president of the Winnipeg Police Association praised the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) for purchasing an armoured vehicle, claiming that ‘We [Winnipeg] don’t see ourselves as a very dangerous place, but it is very dangerous’ (in May and Kives, 2015). While police frequently asserted that there has been an increase in dangerous incidents, few provided data to support this claim. Winnipeg’s deputy police chief was one of a few to provide a statistic, stating that in 2014 and 2015 combined, Winnipeg police executed around ‘[three-hundred] search warrants that involved weapons or had the potential to involve weapons’ (in CBC News, 2016), though he gave no further indication of any actual increases in Canada. There is a lack of clarity in the claim, which is part of the way the claim functions as a policing myth about danger (Phillips, 2016, p. 188). Police officer and public safety were also referenced often. This theme overlaps with the danger theme, but should be considered to be distinct. Most often the concept of danger was associated with hypothetical references to high-risk incidents such as hostage takings and active shooters, whereas the idea of providing safety to officers and the public was connected to more specific incidents that had occurred in the past. Police tended to reference local incidents in which they felt an armoured vehicle would have provided officers and civilians needed protection, though they also made references to well-known incidents in other jurisdictions such as the 2014 Moncton shooting during which three officers were killed and two seriously injured by a shooter with high-powered long guns. These claims focused on the idea that an armoured vehicle would protect police officers from similar situations in the future. Another way in which the safety theme appeared was in the portrayal of armoured vehicles as safety equipment. One of the most common arguments made by the police was that the armoured vehicles should be thought of as safety equipment because it would protect police officers during high-risk incidents. Winnipeg’s police chief went as far as to suggest that an armoured vehicle was a necessary piece of safety equipment to avoid injury lawsuits (May, 2016). The claim that public safety would also be improved relied on the idea that the vehicles would make it possible for medical personnel to reach civilians in conflict areas or as a way to remove civilians from danger. This idea was extended by the police’s frequent insistence that the vehicles had a ‘rescue’ function, and thus should be considered ‘armoured rescue vehicles.’ Little overall coverage was given to those articles critical of the armoured vehicle purchases. While most articles at least acknowledged that there were criticisms of the police becoming more militarized, few elaborated on what those criticism were, or attempted to explain what police militarization is. An even fewer number of articles included comments from claims-makers about militarization. In contrast almost every article in the sample included extensive quotations from police. Only four of the sampled articles conveyed a primarily critical tone of the purchases in terms of their potentially militarizing effect. The CBC (New Brunswick and Winnipeg) published two articles that covered the criticisms of local academics, while the Metro (Winnipeg), and the Winnipeg Free Press each featured a single critical editorial style article. The militarization theme was critiqued almost exclusively by academics. Although these comments appeared in only a handful of articles, their perspective on militarization was consistent. These academics claimed that the acquisition of an armoured vehicle presented a threat to the community policing model. They challenged the notion that public safety would be improved, arguing instead that the vehicle would intimidate members of the public, and put them at greater risk of facing aggressive policing tactics. The criticisms offered spoke to the changing mentality of the police towards the community that was reflected by the armoured vehicle purchase. One article included comments from an indigenous advocate who raised concerns about the potential use of armoured vehicles against protestors (CBC News, 2016). Police claims-makers in the articles regularly admitted that they had heard criticisms and concerns regarding militarization though, they were dismissive of those criticisms. In response to concerns, the police often suggested that since their vehicle would not be equipped with any armaments or was not military-grade, it did not contribute to an increased level of militarization. The WPS for example claimed that they had decided against acquiring an old vehicle from the military because that would ‘send a message we’re really uncomfortable with’ (May and Kives, 2015) as opposed to their Gurkha armored vehicle which was built for ‘policing purposes’ (Hildebrand, 2016). In regard to concerns about the police’s relationship with the community, police representatives argued that their armoured vehicle would not change the police’s community approach, and that they had no intention of distancing themselves from community members. Moreover, they highlighted events which they felt would offer community members an opportunity to be educated about the armoured vehicle. The overall pervasiveness of the police as claims-makers in the media articles allowed for a greater dissemination of the danger and safety themes than that of the competing militarization theme. This presents a problem in that as Greenberg (2004, p. 355) explains, when only a few themes are used to construct an issue it may appear as if relative consensus exists. None of the following critiques are meant to suggest that police do not face danger, or that the safety of police officers and the public is unimportant. Policing myths are not necessarily devoid of truth, rather they often reflect a combination of accurate, exaggerated, and false beliefs (Phillips, 2016, p. 186). However, as Phillips (2016, p. 191) argues policing myths influence policy decisions like equipment purchases and even the proliferation of PPUs, making it imperative that inaccurate or misleading claims are challenged. Kappeler and Kraska (2015, p. 269) likewise argue that it is necessary to assess policing practices, rather than accept them simply because police work is at times dangerous. Even if police are faced with an increasing number of high-risk situations, Kraska and Kappeler (1997, p. 8) argue that in many cases PPUs are themselves creating them. PPUs have increasingly focused on proactive areas of policing that pose more risk of danger to civilians than police (Kraska, 2007, p. 507). PPUs may be responding to more incidents, but it should not be presumed that this means policing has become more dangerous. In Canada, violent crime has been on the decline for over two decades (Cotter, 2015a). Likewise, the violent crime severity index has dropped each year since 2006, other than a marginal increase in 2015 (Allen, 2016, p. 4). Additionally, the number of police officers in Canada who have been killed in the line of duty in Canada has declined since 1961 (Dunn, 2010, p. 6). Officers are statistically more likely to be killed investigating robberies, firearms complaints, and conducting traffic stops than executing high-risk warrants or responding to hostage takings (Dunn, 2010, p. 7). Finally, although the police departments gave their assurances that they are committed to maintaining a community policing approach, that does not mean that the use of armoured vehicles will be restrained (Kraska, 2007). Like American police departments, Canadian police may see little conflict between community policing, PPUs, and military-style equipment. A statement on Saskatoon’s armoured vehicle by a Saskatoon Police Sgt. is revealing: ‘when we pull up with that thing [armoured vehicle] with the red and blue lights and all that stuff, everybody knows it’s the police there to serve a search warrant’ (in Taylor, 2015). If Canadian police services had been restraining their use of armoured vehicles and the PPUs who control them to only the most dangerous incidents justifiably requiring their expertise, then there would be little cause for concern. However, as FOI disclosures show, this has not been the case. The reality of police militarization in Canada Deployments FOI disclosures reveal a stark contrast between media rhetoric and operational realities of police militarization, which we conceive of as a potential policy problem for police. The figures for PPU deployments are not monolithic. There is variation by police service, as in Canada there is no national policy or law regulating PPU conduct or growth. Deployments by some PPUs such as the Ottawa Police Service’s (OPS) Tactical Unit and the Vancouver Police Department’s (VPD) Emergency Response Team (ERT) fluctuated throughout the period covered, though generally speaking deployments were on the decline before increasing slightly in 2016. Both of these units reported deploying between 100 and 200 times in each year (other than in 2010 when the VPD deployed 282 times), which was relatively constrained compared with other PPUs. However, one limitation that was present in both sets of data was that the deployment figures excluded incidents. The data provided by the VPD included only incidents that ‘met the threshold of a critical incident’ (Access Request #16-2974A), while the data provided by the OPS included only those in which the reporting officer had specifically noted the involvement of the Tactical Unit. Figure 1: Open in new tabDownload slide PPU Deployments 2007-2016, Canada Figure 1: Open in new tabDownload slide PPU Deployments 2007-2016, Canada Deployments of the other PPUs were much higher. The Ontario Provincial Police’s (OPP) ERT and the WPS’ Tactical Support Team (TST) deployed at their highest rates in 2016, with over 2000 and 3000 deployments, respectively. The information disclosed by the OPP revealed that the ERT has consistently deployed at just under 1900 times to over 2000 times since 2007. Based on statistics which were extrapolated from two disclosed daily occurrence reports, the WPS’ TST deployed just under 500 times in 2013 and almost 3,400 times in 2016. Although this appears to suggest an extraordinarily high increase in deployments by the TST, it is likely that the unit deployed far more frequently in 2013 than was captured by the 2013 daily occurrence report. In 2013, two separate operational reviews of the WPS concluded that the TST’s reporting standards at the time needed to be improved. Furthermore, in one of these reviews the TST’s number of deployments was estimated to have been just under 2000 in 2012. It is likely that the TST deployed far more than the approximately 500 times suggested by the 2013 daily occurrence report, though this would still suggest that the TST’s deployments have increased since then. The Calgary Police Service’s (CPS) Tactical Unit deployed at a similarly high rate in 2007, but deployments have since declined significantly each year to just over 600 in 2016. Deployment numbers for the PPUs in our sample were inconsistent. Some units averaged only a single call every few days whereas others averaged several calls per day. Likewise, the focus of each unit differs with planned and unplanned deployments representing drastically different proportions of each unit’s total deployments, as well as variation in the types of calls being responded to. While deployments for some PPUs have decreased since 2007, others have increased by a noticeable margin. These changes are inconsistent between jurisdictions, and do not clearly reflect local changes in the crime rate even in jurisdictions where deployments have dropped. The number of officers assigned to each PPU throughout the covered period was somewhat more consistent having remained stable or increasing slightly for each unit. The most significant finding is the rise in the average number of deployments by tactical units since 1980. Using a survey, Alvaro (2000) found the average annual number of deployments for Canadian tactical units was on average 60 total per unit. Our results show the average annual number of deployments for Canadian tactical units is approximately 1,300 per unit, an increase of roughly 2,100% in 37 years. Although the number of deployments of some units decreased in the last 5 years, none of the PPUs saw similar decreases to their number of assigned officers. This finding may be reflective of Kraska’s (2007, p. 511) argument that PPUs are difficult to scale back once they become normalized. Warrant work Warrant executions represented varying proportions of each PPU’s deployments. For both the OPP’s ERT and the WPS’ TST warrant work did not make up a large proportion of deployments, and declined even further from 2013 to 2016. Despite this decline the TST still executed almost 250 warrants in 2016, which was more than most other PPUs. Although deployments of the CPS’ Tactical Unit declined over time, warrant executions remained steady at around 200–250 instances per year, which accounted for about 15% of the Tactical Unit’s deployments in 2007, and grew to represent around a third of all deployments by 2016. The OPS’ Tactical Unit executed approximately 100 warrants in each year. The most significant number of these were drug warrants which accounted for over 60% of all warrant executions in 2007. Drug warrants decreased to just over 30% of warrant work in 2016, though deployments to execute other types of warrants grew during this time. Throughout the period warrant work consistently represented about 70% of all deployments of the OPS’ Tactical Unit. These figures show warrant execution by the SWAT unit is becoming institutionalized in Canadian public policing. Regular duty and community policing One of the most significant findings from the FOI requests was that several PPUs regularly engage in routine or mundane policing which includes responding to minor offences or even non-criminal incidents. The CPS’ Tactical Unit deployed almost 300 times in response to various ‘dispatch codes’ in 2007, as well as approximately 200 times each to ‘disturbances’ and ‘suspicious’ incidents. Deployments in these three categories accounted for nearly 45% of the unit’s total deployments during that year, and continued to represent as much as 30% by 2016. Deployments to other minor offences including noise complaints, drug offences, property crimes, traffic violations, and motor vehicle collisions represented almost a third of all deployments in 2007, though these deployments declined to under 15% by 2016. The WPS’ TST was the most heavily engaged in community policing type work. Nearly 100 instances of ‘special attentions’ or ‘hot-spots’ deployments by the TST are recorded in the 2016 daily occurrence report, several of which indicated that they were connected to the WPS’ recently created Centreline strategy. The Centreline strategy is described by the WPS as downtown policing strategy that is meant to reduce crime and disorder, and improve public safety (both actual and perceived) by combining elements of problem-oriented policing, smart policing initiative (SPI), and community engagement. Although the strategy was not publicly announced until December 15, 2016, the TST attended meetings and deployed under it as early as June, 2016. The TST’s involvement in community policing is further evidenced by a substantial number of deployments in response to noise complaints, traffic incidents, disturbances, and other minor events. The involvement of the VPD’s ERT and the OPS’ Tactical Unit is largely unknown. Although both are known to assist street-level officers upon request, accurate records of this work are not kept by either force. PPU deployments in response to individuals with mental health issues, suicide threats, and to conduct well-being checks have been common. The CPS’ Tactical Unit was called to over 130 such incidents in 2007, which while decreasing each year still saw the unit respond to over 60 incidents in 2016. The OPS’ Tactical Unit responded to relatively few calls of this nature in each year (20–30% of the unit’s unplanned deployments). In most cases the deployment entry noted that the purpose of the Tactical Unit’s involvement was to assist street-level officers in bringing individuals with known or suspected mental health issues into custody. In contrast the WPS’ TST has responded to an increasing number of these incidents. Under 20 suicide threats and well-being checks were recorded in the 2013 daily occurrence report; the 2016 report records almost 300 such deployments. Some entries included notes that provided insight into the TST’s strategy for handling such occurrences that involved confronting suicidal individuals and gaining their compliance. Given that PPUs are the most heavily armed and armoured units, it is concerning that they continue to have a significant role in responding to suicidal individuals and those suffering from mental health issues. In these cases the individuals have not necessarily committed any offence and may not respond well to an escalation of force by the police. Discussion and implications While Canadian police services have not been militarized as overtly as many American police agencies, and there are no policies that allow the military to directly transfer technology and equipment to police as there are in the USA, at least some police services show signs of PPU normalization that is linked to militarization. Discourse analysis of media articles on armoured vehicle procurements reveals that the attitude of Canadian police departments in obtaining what is military-style equipment relies on misleading claims. We found that there is a stock set of claims pertaining to danger and safety projected by police services that procure military-style armoured vehicles. Media sources largely reproduce the position of the police when covering topics relevant to militarization, and identify police as primary claims-makers, which not only limits research, but public debate. Although this component was limited to a small sample size, in terms of the number of articles and number of police services, the findings were consistent. As a result, a considerable level of confidence can be placed in the findings and in the likelihood that they would remain consistent if the sample were to be expanded, particularly since the results reflected a police mentality that has been documented (Phillips, 2016, p. 187). The fact that most major Canadian cities have a PPU with at least one armoured vehicle, and that PPU assigned officers have grown, provides evidence that the cultural dimension of militarization is pervasive and reinforces the organizational and operational dimensions of militarization. FOI disclosures show that the operational reality of police militarization in Canada is very different than the portrayal of this phenomenon in media and police rhetoric. SWAT teams are being used for more than public emergencies; they are being used for routine policing. Additionally, the disclosures show little consistency between the role of Canadian PPUs as primarily reactive or proactive forces, but do provide evidence that they are acting outside their advertised mandate.5 Similar to the findings of Kraska and Cubellis (1997) and Kraska and Kappeler (1997), Canadian PPUs are engaging in extensive warrant work and community policing rather than strictly responding to high-risk incidents. That is not to say that our FOI data are without limits, as FOI disclosures are almost guaranteed to have been limited in unknown ways in addition to the more explicit redactions (Walby and Luscombe, forthcoming; Lippert et al., 2016). However, FOI requests offer a research method that is of value to those studying government agencies, allowing researcher to gain access to records that would not otherwise be disclosed. Further research on militarization in Canada using FOI and other research methods is warranted less Canada follows this trend and American style militarization becomes institutionalized across public police services. These findings are an account of police militarization in Canada, but also raise questions about police communications in international context. As Kappeler and Kraska (2015) argue, the normalization of police militarization continues, yet claims-makers obfuscate these processes. Media and police framing of equipment purchases play a part in manufacturing a neutral image of a potentially dangerous change in policing. Following Kappeler’s (2014) claim that research should communicate directly to public police, there is a clear message in our findings for police and criminal justice policymakers: contradictory messaging about and media framing of militarization by police claims-makers could increase risk and decrease trust and public confidence (Ellis and McGovern, 2016; Rantatalo, 2016). Such an erosion could be damaging to community relationships with the police, particularly in minority communities where confidence in the police tends to be lower (Cotter, 2015b). Moreover, the public may become less willing to accept future police requests about equipment needs and PPU activities if earlier claims have been shown to be inaccurate. Challenges to police legitimacy in the form of reputational risk are a potential problem that police may need to remedy as this juxtaposition becomes starker. The contrast between the media rhetoric and operational reality of police militarization in Canada is stark, out of touch with the best practice model of communication advocated by Wünsch and Hohl (2009). Police administrators should be more candid about SWAT team use and changes in routine police work, or take efforts to freeze this militarization creep. Militarization is not the result of some natural evolution in policing. It is a political decision, and it affects the lives of citizens (Delehanty et al., 2017). We call for research into police militarization in all countries where it is occurring with consequences for the relationship between police and the citizens who police are supposed to professionally, impartially serve. Footnotes 1 Notable examples include the OPS’s purchase of a BearCat armoured vehicle in 2010 (OPS, n.d.), the VPD’s ARV which was also purchased in 2010 (Palmer, 2010), and the CPS’s Armet Balkan MK7 purchased in 2008 (CBC News, 2008a). 2 As of 2016, about 65% of the Canadian population resides in a municipality with over 50,000 people (Statistics Canada, n.d.). Winnipeg is the 7th largest in Canada with 705,244 people, Saskatoon is the 19th (246,376), and Fredericton is the 92nd (58,220) (Statistics Canada, n.d.). 3 In 2016, the Winnipeg Sun and the Metro were estimated to each have readership of approximately 50% of the adult population in Winnipeg (Winnipeg Free Press, 2016). Additionally, the Metro claims to reach approximately 2 million Canadians nation-wide everyday (Metro News, n.d.). As of 2015 the CBC reports that approximately 10.6 million unique users visit its website each month (CBC/Radio-Canada, 2015, p. 39). 4 Some criticisms were voiced over the usefulness of such a vehicle in comparison to other options given that the vehicle had a $343,000 price tag (CBC News, 2015a), although the majority of such criticisms were over the secretive nature of the purchase (Pursaga, 2016). While the cost and procurement process of armoured vehicles does leave much room for debate, such an analysis is beyond our scope. 5 On their websites, the OPS, VPD, and CPS similarly describe the mandates of their PPUs as responding to high-risk or dangerous situations such as hostage-takings, barricaded suspects, and high-risk warrant executions (Calgary Police Service, n.d.; OPS, n.d.; Vancouver Police Department, n.d.). The WPS does not provide any information on its website about the TST, however a similar mandate to that of the aforementioned units was presented in media accounts of the unit’s creation (CBC News, 2008b). The OPP ERT’s public mandate is broader than that of the other PPUs. While the ERT is responsible for many of the same duties, it is also described as being involved in tasks including search and rescue, assisting in canine tracking, and public order policing that are not within the publicly presented mandates of the other PPUs (Ontario Provincial Police, 2016). References Allen M. ( 2016 ). Police-Reported Crime Statistics in Canada, 2015 . Juristat , 36 ( 1 ): 1 – 55 . WorldCat Alvaro S. ( 2000 ). Tactical Law Enforcement in Canada: An Exploratory Survey of Canadian Police Agencies. MA thesis, Carleton University. Bieler S. ( 2016 ). Police Militarization in the USA: the State of the Field . 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TI - Police Militarization in Canada: Media Rhetoric and Operational Realities
JF - Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice
DO - 10.1093/police/pax075
DA - 2019-12-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/police-militarization-in-canada-media-rhetoric-and-operational-SKXA70g100
SP - 470
VL - 13
IS - 4
DP - DeepDyve
ER -