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Today’s guest blogger is Robert Chrismas, author of Canadian Policing in the 21st Century: A Frontline Officer on Challenges and Changes.
How does your agency cope in the face of ever-advancing technology, globalization, and increased demands around managing information? How are you compensating for mass retirements, changing demographics, and corporate knowledge loss? Are you effectively transitioning staff members that have worked the bulk of their careers in the analogue world to be competitive in today’s digital environment?
Entering my third decade in policing, I had an epiphany about how much my profession has changed since I learned to write reports on manual typewriters in my 1989 recruit class. Like every other industry, policing has seen such dramatic changes that what we imagine for the next 20 years is as surreal as the idea of people travelling to space on paid space shuttles was two decades ago. Two decades ago society would not have tolerated the idea of conducting business from home and having meetings as avatars in virtual environments, yet many businesses now operate this way.
Law enforcement has evolved from paper reports and filing cabinets, to body worn cameras and global positioning in a digitally connected universe. Most North Americans use smart phones that connect them immediately with information that we could not have imagined in previous decades. Police officers now must assume that an action they take in the street may be replaying in the media before they get back to the office to write a report about it.
In the 24 years of my own policing career, I’ve had a front-row seat to the changes that have occurred and have witnessed how these changes present challenges that cross every industry and confront administrators in both the public and private sectors. Two decades ago administrators made decisions about what information to release, whereas now they must manage information that is already out there.
The changes have been amplified in the policing profession. In the past, obtaining search warrants for drugs, weapons, and criminal evidence occurred with a one-page affidavit from an officer. Search warrants now often require 40 to 80-page affidavits, outlining entire investigations. Law enforcement officers (LEOs) once had automatic credibility in court. Nowadays, officers have to establish their credibility every time they testify.
Changing societal conditions draw increasingly on police resources. Since police are available 24/7/365, they often take on other agency’s responsibilities. Law enforcement agencies expend massive resources chasing chronic runaways and apprehending mentally ill people for treatment, despite the fact that children running from foster placements are a child welfare issue, and caring for the mentally ill is a mandate of the health care system..
All of these growing demands have occurred alongside increasing administrative requirements that take front line officers away from their core duties – patrolling and keeping communities safe. Today’s social problems are too complex and far-reaching for any one agency to manage alone. Police have to partner more than ever with other government and non-government service agencies, sharing responsibility for these far-reaching problems. Collaborative efforts help reduce the increasing strain on law enforcement. Police have a unique role in society. They can use their credibility and support communities, acting as change agents, bringing all the stakeholders together and coordinating team responses to complex social issues.
My new focus, in policing and post-graduate studies, is crime prevention through social development. For many years, my police work focused on catching criminals often to see them back on the streets and re-offending within days. However, high recidivism rates and increasing reliance on prisons to keep society safe is not sustainable. Now, the only approaches that resonate, for me, address the root causes of crime, not just the symptoms. Law enforcement, and service-provider systems, must be proactive and intervention based, focused on preventing victimization.
My new book, Canadian Policing in the 21st Century: A Frontline Officer on Challenges and Changes describes the changes that I have seen in our ever-evolving profession. My observations about police culture, technological impacts and resulting accountability, and shifting strategies speak to changes we have seen in policing on a global scale.. My hope is not only that law enforcement officers can learn from my experiences, but also that my book will bring awareness to other service providers with whom we work. Finally, I hope the public can gain an understanding of the ever-increasing challenges of modern policing and public administration.
Robert (Bob) Chrismas MPA, has served the Winnipeg Police Service for 24 years. He previously served for 5 years as a Manitoba Sheriff’s Officer. Bob also served for several years with the Canadian military as well as working for several years with parolees within Canada’s prison system. He is now a University of Manitoba Doctoral candidate in Peace and Conflict Studies. Bob is married with four children.
Join us for the Canadian Policing in the 21st Century Book Launch!
Wednesday, September 18 at 7:00 PM
McNally Robinson in Winnipeg
Click here for more info
To order this book online, click here.
For media inquiries, contact MQUP publicist Jacqui Davis.
Book signing in Ottawa:
Tuesday Oct 15th noon to 4PM, Chapters, Ottawa, Rideau Centre
Book signing in Winnipeg:
Saturday Oct 12th, noon to 2PM, Indigo Books, Kenaston
Saturday Oct 19th, 11AM to 2PM at Chapters, Polo Park
Sunday Nov 10th, 1 to 4PM at Chapters, St. Vital Mall
[…] – See more at: http://www.mqup.ca/blog/frontline-officer-challenges/#! […]
Canadian Policing in the 21st Century… Amazon.ca- yesterday crept from #17 down to #21 (of 100) in the category of Law, TODAY #1 BEST SELLER in Law, #2 in Law Enforcement, then dropped to #23… changes every hour.
Book review from Oxford:
“Canadian Policing in the 21st Century will certainly interest anyone who studies or practices policing. The prose is easy to follow. The vignettes are very engaging and memorable. Given the detailed account of local public police work that Chrismas provides, scholars and practitioners alike might wish to grab a copy and pass their own judgement. Practitioners who are thinking of writing about their policing work will find Canadian Policing in the 21st Century interesting to assess as a template.”
Oxford University Press: Policing, A Journal of Policy an Practice, published December 1, 2013
Book singing at Coles Books, Kildonan Place Winnipeg, December 14th 2013, 1 to 4PM
Although academic in nature, this volume reads easily and should be approachable to all. If you’re a seasoned law enforcement agent, this book gives you a lens into what’s on the horizon. If you’re new in law enforcement, these pages offer a lot of wisdom and experience. If you know nothing about law enforcement at all, or if you’re thinking about a life in law enforcement, this book is especially for you. Law enforcement is nothing like the glamourisation depicted by Hollywood. If you want to find out what it’s like to be a police officer, this book is definitely for you.
The primary message that pervades this book and that comes thought loud and clear is that the hope for more effective policing is potentially imminent and that hope resides in a dramatic shift in policing practices from ones that are reactive and punitive to ones that are preventive and humane in nature. While the author makes clear that the implementation of these practices are hugely challenging and are often labour intensive,more importantly,he also provides considerable evidence from his own first-hand experiences and research that these practices work. For example, the author consistently demonstrates the superiority of collaborative efforts among relevant parties to arrive at solutions(preventive practices)over ones arrived at through zero sum practices(reactive practices). This book is must reading for all those in and outside law enforcement who believe the time is ripe for the shift in approach to policing the author so effectively advocates for and presents in this book.
Book signings coming up:
Winnipeg- Feb 22nd, 2014, Chapters, St Vital Mall
Toronto- March 28th, 2014, Indigo, Eatons Centre
“I find this book to be a very realistic account of modern day policing that reflects the challenges police officers face daily. Brilliantly written, it offers insights that could revolutionize the way policing occurs throughout our nation.”
– Joy Smith, Founder and President
http://www.joysmithfoundation.com/notices_detail.asp?notice_ID=260
New book review published by a scholarly journal:
“..not only has Chrismas developed an excellent academic resource, he has provided the public with an understanding and appreciation of what police officers experience while working on the frontlines.”
(By Katie Cook University of Waterloo).
“Robert Chrismas is a thoughtful and engaged police officer, and he has produced a manuscript that is a very useful and commendable reflection upon the many mostly positive changes that have occurred in Canadian policing during the past 30 years.
Full review in the LITERARY REVIEW OF CANADA by Neil Boyd, professor and the director of the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University