I think one of the biggest challenges in our system—in particular the way we train our officers—is that it's all about catching bad guys. It's about the how but it's not about the why. Ultimately, good policing services should be about crime prevention, not primarily about “there are always bad guys out there” but ultimately about a police officer who knows this community.
But the challenge is that the way we currently train officers, that's not happening. Because all we teach officers—whether it's at the police college in Ontario or whether it's at Depot—is about how we do all the tactical things in terms of arresting people. If we want to get to a prevention-based policing model, we need a leadership and ethics concept that asks not just how we do policing, but why we do policing. What is the relationship between the police and their society? It requires a much different approach to embedding a police officer and educating a police officer within their society.
One example is in Switzerland where it's a year-long course in order to be a police officer. Half the year is spent on tactical things as we do here. The other half is based on things such as history, leadership, ethics, basic norms and values, explaining how government works. Many police officers I have met can't really tell you exactly why the outcomes in traffic court and criminal court are different. Why is it that in traffic court, so often, it doesn't go the police officer's way? It's because, chances are, you won't go to jail in traffic court, but in criminal court you are. Obviously the standard of evidence is going to be higher.
I'm absolutely on line with that, but it requires a complete shift in how we train and educate our police officers.