Menu Close

Articles on Policing

Displaying 1 - 20 of 323 articles

Cities and towns across the United States have invested in the gunshot detection technology ShotSpotter. Douglas Sacha/Getty Images

I studied ShotSpotter in Chicago and Kansas City – here’s what people in Detroit and the more than 167 other cities and towns using this technology should know

Our research found that while ShotSpotter may have benefits for improved detection and response, it offers little benefit for enforcement and clearance and did not reduce gunshot victimization.
Police tape blocks access to an alleyway at the scene of a homicide where six people were found dead in the Barrhaven suburb of Ottawa in March 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle

Paying more for policing doesn’t stop or reduce crime

An analysis of trends over the last 20 years in Canada could not find any correlation between increases in municipal police budgets and a reduction in crime rates. There’s another way forward.
Optimistic Scotland fans at the opening match against hosts Germany at Euro 2024. AP / Alamy

Euro 2024: why the host nation is required to protect the human rights of football fans

For host cities football fans are simultaneously potential consumers and criminals. But they have rights, and fan zones are a good way of protecting fans, the public and the streets.
We put together a list of staff recommendations of our podcast for your summer listening. This is a collage of the guests of those episodes. (The Conversation Canada)

Some of our favourite episodes you may have missed: Don’t Call Me Resilient podcast

In this bonus episode, you’ll meet some of the producers who help make this podcast to revisit some of our favourite episodes from past seasons.
Police drag away a tent from a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Irvine on May 15, 2024. Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

Who gets to decide what counts as ‘disorder’?

Framing dissent and poverty as a menace to public order can threaten fundamental rights, particularly when it’s used to justify the deployment of predictive technology.
Members of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) at the scene of a homicide investigation in Hamilton, Ont., May 2023. The unit is charged with investigating potential misconduct by Ontario police officers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Iwanyshyn

Does the Ontario Special Investigations Unit need a broader mandate to improve police oversight?

The SIU plays a vital role in providing oversight of Ontario police officers. But how effective is the agency in practice?
Students erect ‘shantytowns’ at Johns Hopkins University in 1986 to call for divestment from South Africa. JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado via Getty Images

Calls for divestment from apartheid South Africa gave today’s pro-Palestinian student activists a blueprint to follow

In the 1980s, university administrators called the police on anti-apartheid protesters, threatened to revoke their scholarships and ordered staff to demolish encampments.
Many police officers are instructed to look for signs of excited delirium when encountering members of the public who may seem distressed. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

A dangerous diagnosis: How ‘excited delirium’ shapes police perception

The diagnosis of excited delirium has come under fire from doctors and other mental health professionals, but is still used by police forces, sometimes with tragic results. It’s time to end its use.
A Surrey Police crest is seen on the side of one of the force’s vehicles in Surrey, B.C., in July 2023. The provincial government wants the city to move ahead with an independent police force instead of using the RCMP. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Surrey, B.C., shows the rest of Canada what not to do when breaking away from the RCMP

The current blue-on-blue battle between competing law enforcement agencies in a large British Columbia city does little to strengthen public trust in the rule of law and in our police forces

Top contributors

More