Police governance in Canada: A parallax perspective Michael Sheard Professional Doctorate in Policing, Security and Community Safety 2016 London Metropolitan University Abstract Tensions between public expectations for police governance and ethical governance mirror recent spectacular governance failures. Several recent Canadian commissions of inquiry and court cases critical of the police have suggested police governance need to be more direct and assertive. The small numbers of academic studies that focused on the unique field of policing have largely ignored the behaviour of police boards responsible for their governance. More importantly is the apparent lack of attention paid by those responsible for police governance to the criticality of the pluralistic nature of policing itself. This research focuses on police boards in particular and not the police, with particular attention given to the link between their ethical decision-making and public trust. National leads in police governance, representing regional and national boards and board associations from across the country, were interviewed for this research. Eight key aspects of police governance were analyzed, and a number of gaps between current and best practices were identified. Ultimately, a number of recommendations are made to close those gaps, including the contribution of a new universal assessment instrument for police governance: the parallax perspective tool. Key words: police governance, assessing performance, community trust and accountability, ethics and responsibilities, policy versus operational, political relationships, selection and training, strategic planning, and parallax perspective. ii Acknowledgements In presenting this thesis, the author would like to thank Alan Sheard, Margaret Sheard, Catherine Rogers, Adam Sheard, and Laurel Rogers for their love and support during this long process. I would also like to thank the interviewees who participated in the research. Finally, I would like to thank my supervisors, Nicholas Ridley and Norman Ginsberg at the London Metropolitan University, for their support and guidance. iii Police governance in Canada: A parallax perspective Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iii Index of Tables and Figures ............................................................................................ vi List of Tables ..................................................................... vi List of Figures .................................................................... vi Glossary of Terms ........................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................1 Background ..........................................................................1 Structure .............................................................................11 Chapter 2: Literature Review .........................................................................................13 Overview ............................................................................13 Part 1: Police Independence ...............................................16 Defining Police Independence ...............................16 Types and Typologies ............................................19 Police Board Associations ......................... 25 Operations versus Policy............................ 28 External Influences on Police Governance ............36 Legislation.................................................. 36 Commissions and Reports.......................... 43 Court Decisions .......................................... 53 Trends in Corporate Governance ............... 56 Legitimacy of Police Board Independence ............58 Part 2: Police Accountability .............................................59 Defining Police Accountability..............................59 Legitimacy through Accountability .......................59 Accountabiliity through Assessment .....................61 Themes and Typologies .........................................64 Police Leadership ....................................... 64 Comparative Governance Systems ............ 67 Governance as Leadership ......................... 69 Causes of Problems in Accountability ...................72 Pluralism .................................................... 72 Change Management ................................. 74 The Parallax Perspective ........................................76 Chapter Summary ..............................................................87 Chapter 3: Research Methodology .................................................................................88 Overview ............................................................................88 Working Parameters...........................................................89 The Author .........................................................................92 iv Ethical Considerations .......................................................92 Method Employed ..............................................................93 Questionnaire and Major Research Themes ......................95 Research Scope and Gap Analysis .....................................96 Interview Methodology ......................................................98 Sampling and Subject Selection.........................................99 Difficulties Encountered and Amendments .....................101 Chapter 4: Findings ......................................................................................................103 Findings by Theme ..........................................................104 Selection, Orientation and Training .....................104 Training and Orientation .......................... 104 Recruiting and Selection .......................... 108 Terms of Office & Succession Planning .. 111 Political Appointees ................................. 114 Ex-Police on Boards ................................ 115 Ethics and Responsibilities ..................................119 Assessing Performance ........................................120 Understanding: Policy versus Operations ............123 Ethics and Accountability ....................................127 Community Trust and Accountability ..... 135 Fiduciary Oversight .............................................140 Strategic Planning ................................................144 Political Relationships .........................................147 Chapter Summary ............................................................152 Chapter 5: Discussion ....................................................................................................153 Overview ..........................................................................153 Assessing Best Practices ..................................................153 The Parallax Perspective Tool .........................................155 Case Studies .....................................................................158 Case Study: The G20 Summit Conference, Toronto Canada ........................................158 Case Study: Police Recruiting in the 1990s .........159 Chapter 6: Conclusions .................................................................................................163 Politeia and the Future of Police Governance..................174 Limitations and Applications ...........................................176 Further Research ..............................................................178 In Closing .........................................................................179 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................180 Appendices ......................................................................................................................199 Appendix A: 2005 CAPB Best Practices .........................199 Appendix B: Participant Consent Form ...........................202 Appendix C: Interview Question Guide ..........................205 Appendix D: Table of Concordance ................................209 Appendix E: Gap Analysis and Recommendations .........213 v Index of Tables and Figures List of Tables Table 1. Structure of Canadian Police Boards in 2009 .....................................................22 Table 2. Table of Subthemes ..............................................................................................96 Table 3. Summary Table of Participants .........................................................................100 Table 4. Summary of Sources of Potential Political Interference in Recruiting and Selection ...............................................................................................................117 List of Figures Figure 1. Structural relationships between police boards and their stakeholders..............25 Figure 2: The Police Governance Perspective Grid ..........................................................83 Figure 3: Public perspective. ...........................................................................................157 Figure 4: Police perspective. ...........................................................................................157