In safe hands?

Canada has a reputation for being a safe society, but what do British policemen now working on the other side of the atlantic have to say on the matter? Hanna Lindon investigates...

London is reeling in the wake of yet another knife crime – this time the victim is 14-year-old Shaquille Maitland-Smith, an army cadet who bled to death in his mother's arms after a gang of youths on bicycles attacked him with blades. His murder brings the number of teenagers fatally stabbed in London to this year to 20, and emphasises yet again that violent crime among teenagers in the UK capital is rising sharply.

Across the Atlantic, it's another story completely. Statistics Canada recently revealed that the nation's crime rate has dropped for the third consecutive year, with homicides and robberies seeing the greatest decline. Crime among 12- to 17- year-olds also fell in 2007 by 1.5 per cent, and most major metropolitan centres saw a decline in the overall crime rate.

With statistics like these, it's no wonder that a prime motivation among those migrating to Canada is to bring up their families in a less dangerous environment. The perception of Canada as a 'culture of innocence' with safer streets and more efficient policing systems to the UK has also attracted thousands of British bobbies looking to transform their working lives.

Constable Stewart O'Neill is one of those who jumped at the chance of a fresh start in Canada. Speaking at the Canadian High Commission in London, he revealed that the low crime rate in the Land of the Maple Leaf was an important factor in influencing his decision. "The biggest consideration was the well-being of my family, which is likely to be the motivating factor for other UK recruits," he said.

Many of the British policemen who emigrate to Canada find that their jobs are made somewhat easier, not by a difference in the nature of the criminals but by a difference in the nature of Canada's communities.

"People here are generous and friendly, and citizens seem to be very active in reporting crime and helping to stamp it out," says Steve Pocock, a British migrant who works as a 911 operative in Victoria, Vancouver Island.

"This is quite different to how we found things in the UK, where 'looking the other way' seemed to be all too prevalent. What we find wonderful here, unlike the UK, is the community spirit. People love their communities, and are very proud of them. If a youth is misbehaving, people are generally outraged and will tell them so. I cannot see this happening in today's Britain."

Perhaps it's this community-based approach to combating crime that has resulted in the low number of youth offences in Canada. It's a tactic which many British migrants say was employed during their childhood in the UK, but which has been supplanted over here by a general feeling of alienation – nowadays, more than ever, Brits feel divorced from the communities in which they live. In many areas of Canada, however, community spirit is still strong; and it is this value which Pocock suggests lies behind one of the main differences between UK and Canadian crime.

"People here generally respect other people's property and right to enjoy life," he says. "If you come across some hooded males, they are more likely to say 'hi' and move over for you than produce a knife and demand your wallet."

Paul Looker, a British policeman working in Edmonton, has noticed a similar trend. "I find that there is less youth-on-youth violence here than in the UK, and in general youths are better behaved," he says.

There are other differences between crime in Canada and the UK; some positive, and some less so.

"I can't really say whether there's less crime in Canada or there's the same amount, but we count it differently," says Stuart Davidson, a British policeman working in Edmonton and author of the 'Secret Policeman' blog. "The thieves don't seem as determined or organised as they are in the UK: there aren't the same number of large-scale bank and cash-in-transit robberies, nor is there the same amount of level two crime, where villains drive long distances to commit felonies. On the other hand, there's a lot of crack cocaine".

Looker agrees that drugs are a "big problem" in Edmonton, and according to Pocock, they are also a major issue on Canada's west coast. "Unlike in the UK, drugs are perhaps the biggest social problem and bugbear for all the population over here," he explains. "You can't avoid seeing users all over downtown. We receive many calls daily about parents taking their kids to school, having to walk past people injecting themselves or injecting each other with heroin. Then there are frequent calls about users passed out behind dumpsters, people going beserk running down the middle of a busy highway in a state of delirium, or junkies doing the 'funky chicken' in public parks!"

Most of Canada's major cities have trouble with drug-users – impaired driving and drug offences were among the few police-reported crimes to increase in 2007, with the rate of drug offences rising by 4 per cent. And, while the drugs themselves are usually dealt and contained within a small area, drug-related crimes are a more widespread problem. "The drug culture results in massive car crime, homeless people and mental health issues," says Pocock. "Car crime in particular is rife, and largely a result of the drug problem. Coming on duty at 6am in the Victoria 911 centre, the first few hours consist mainly of taking reports of vehicle break-ins and car thefts."

One type of crime that migrants expect to see more of after moving to Canada is gun-related offences. Canada has more guns and fewer controls on them than most nations in Europe, and the gun ownership rate is about 27 per cent of households. As Pocock points out, this has its attached problems. "Migrants have to be aware that they are on the continent of North America, with attendant North American crimes," he says. "So we do get armed bank robberies, drive-by shootings and biker gangs."

On the other hand, Canada has far less of a problem with firearms than the USA. Only one third of murders in the country involve guns, and it is effectively illegal to carry   concealed  handguns.  "Gun crimes are relatively rare and certainly more prevalent in big cities," says Pocock.

"They are nothing to be overtly concerned about, and not something the average citizen is likely to encounter, but just be aware that they do exist."

Although most migrants are unlikely to find themselves affected by the greater prevalence of firearms in Canada, it's a different story for the Canadian police. "One of the main differences between policing in the UK and Canada is the gun aspect," says Looker. "Because there are more of them here, police officers are naturally more safety conscious going to calls."
"Cops over here are generally no nonsense – as in all of North America they carry guns and may have tazers also," agrees Pocock. For example, if the police run a vehicle licence plate and it comes back as stolen, the driver will be stopped and ordered out of the vehicle and on to the ground at gunpoint! No messing around here."

While Canadian police may have a more forceful approach than their UK equivalents, the powers of detention and arrest that they are granted by law are actually comparatively restrictive. "When you take into account the fact that stop and search and police bail don't exist, it probably seems like we have fewer powers of arrest, search and detention than in the UK," says Davidson. "However, in the UK you spend so much time justifying the fact that you exercised the power in the first place, you never get out of the station! For example, it's all very well having the power to arrest on reasonable suspicion, as you do in the UK – the problem is that, once you've used that power, the demands of the system ensure that you remain in custody justifying your arrest and trying to get your suspect to court."

According to Davidson, this smaller bureaucratic burden results in a far more effective police force. "We're more productive and there's less waiting around," he says. No CPS Direct or defence solicitors to call, no appropriate adults or lengthy booking procedure in custody. What this means in terms of actual time is difficult to say, because it depends on how quickly and accurately you can type up the required reports, but as an estimate I'd say it takes 75 per cent less time to deal with incidents."

Most of the British police people who emigrate to Canada feel positively about the different approach to arresting and charging suspects. Looker, for example, admits that "the powers for a police officer are generally more restrictive in Canada", but says "generally arrests end in charges, unlike in the UK."

Another positive aspect of policing in Canada is the attitude of communities towards officers. "I was sometimes surprised in the UK, both as a 999 operative and as a special constable, how badly the police were often treated," observes Pocock. "Being spat at, shouted at and sworn at and generally abused was all part of the lot of the British bobby. If you did that here, your feet wouldn't touch the ground. In  my opinion, there's way more respect for the police, and for authority in general, over here than in the UK."

Of course, attitudes to the police and methods of policing vary across Canada, just as crime levels do. Many problems are specific to particular areas – such as the fugitive issue currently plaguing the west coast.

"You get a lot of criminals from other provinces fleeing to the west coast," says Pocock. "If you are wanted by the police, say in Manitoba, you simply leave the state and the police can't touch you. Your Manitoba warrant is not applicable in other provinces. Only Canada-wide warrants mean you can be arrested anywhere in the country.

And where do you think most criminals head for? The balmy west coast, where the weather is mild all year round, so if you have to sleep in the streets then it isn't going to kill you. However, Vancouver and Victoria have recently inaugurated their own 'con-air' programmes, where criminals wanted for serious crimes can be arrested and shipped back to their native province."

Vancouver and Victoria both have relatively high crime rates compared to the rest of Canada – the west coast in general has higher rates of violent crime than the east. The province with the highest crime rate last year, however, was Saskatchewan, closely followed by Manitoba. Ontario and Quebec have the lowest crime rates overall.
 
One problem facing the entire country at the moment is a shortage of police people. In 2006 there were 61,050 police officers in Canada, which equates to one per 528.6 people. That rate is substantially lower than most developed countries, with only Japan and Sweden having so few police officers, and many British officers notice the difference.

"There are never enough police officers to attend all of the incidents which may be in progress at any one time," says Pocock. "As in the UK, that results in calls to the 911 centre from residents asking where the police are. However, a large recruitment drive over the last year is starting to turn things around, with many more officers on the street."

The massive Canadian recruitment drive has been instrumental in bringing a new influx of British bobbies to the country. The drive was so successful that 12 per cent of all applications that the Canadian police receive now originate outside of Canada, while the majority of those come from the UK.
 
O'Neill is one of those who was attracted by Canadian advertising in the UK – he migrated to Calgary, which was implementing a particularly aggressive recruitment policy.

"Calgary was heavily promoted in the UK," he says. "We liked the location, and economically it was good for us."

Although Calgary has now put its recruitment drive on hold, other Canadian cities are still eager to attract British policemen. "Canadian police forces are always keen to take on British officers," says Pocock. "Don't wait for job ads, just pick up the phone and speak to someone – that's how things are done over here. There are quite a few expat officers over here,
particularly in Alberta I understand. Victoria police has several UK officers and they seem to fit in very well indeed."

The success of the Canadian recruitment policy in the UK indicates that many British policemen have been happy to swap their job in the UK for a new world environment in Canada. Many perceive life over the Atlantic as safer in general, as Looker observes. "Where we live I have no issues walking, running and being there on my own," he says of Edmonton. "I feel completely safe here."

Pocock has similar feelings about Victoria and the west coast. "We feel much safer and more secure in Canada than we ever felt in the UK," he says. "Crime of all types exist everywhere, but it seems much less day-to-day in Canada.

"Our advice is not to be overly paranoid, as we were. When we moved into our edge-of-town duplex, we chained our patio furniture to the wall. I didn't even want to leave these things outside. Our neighbours thought we were mad; just how bad are things in the UK? In Canada things are way better – or at the very least, appear to be!"

A favourite saying among British migrants is that Canada reminds them of 'how the UK used to be 20 years ago'. This adage also rings true of crime and policing in the country – the level and types of crime, the community support for police officers and the attitude towards detention and charging of criminals. Perhaps crime seems less of an issue in the country not because felonies are rarer but because community dependence and mutual support results in crime being perceived as less intimidating. In the Canadian psyche, it is the communities and not the
criminals that are in control.

Find Stuart Davidson's blog at: http://copperblog.blogspot.com

12 December 2008