Mr. Moore, we encourage our police officers to bear in mind that they represent the first level of the judicial process. Ideally, they should not feel any resentment as to what is to happen next.
However, as I said earlier, for some types of crimes--and I used the example of car theft--we are at the point now, at least within my own police service, where we view them with a certain amount of cynicism. Given the number of people who are charged with this crime and the type of sentence they receive... We see these same individuals out on the street the next day. For police officers who end up seeing them again and have to arrest them once more for the same type of crime they were involved in days or weeks before that, it becomes rather repetitive. I won't go as far as to say there is disengagement, but they end up wondering whether they shouldn't be doing something else.
That situation has consequences that we are seeking to minimize, but it is absolutely essential--and I think this is really the message we want to leave with you today--that the provisions of the Criminal Code give equal weight to the concerns of the public, the victims, the accused and the police officers who enforce them, and that there be justice for all. If we can say that is true at all four levels, I think we will have met our goal. But at the present time, as regards some offences, both in my opinion and based on my own experience, we are not meeting that goal.