Jan 6 | Policing

Office Hours and Communication

  • Teaching Assistant (TA) Engagement

    • TAs will establish consultative hours tailored to tutorial groups. Specific times and locations (virtual or physical) will be announced via the eClass dashboard.

    • To streamline communications and minimize email volume, TAs will use the tutorial shell on eClass for group announcements and message boards for peer-to-peer or TA-led discussions.

  • Instructor Correspondence and Availability

    • Official office hours are scheduled for Wednesdays and Fridays from 10:0010:00 AM to 11:1511:15 AM in North Ross, Room 702702. These are drop-in sessions requiring no prior appointment.

    • Outside of these hours, students must email the instructor to request a specific meeting time.

    • Email Requirement: Every email sent to the instructor must contain the specific course identifier in the subject line. This is a mandatory administrative requirement as the instructor manages four separate courses simultaneously.

Course Overview and Format

  • Digital Infrastructure via eClass

    • eClass serves as the primary repository for all lecture slides, assignment rubrics, and mandatory readings.

    • Students are expected to enable email notifications for eClass announcements to stay informed about deadline changes or class cancellations.

Assessments and Assignments

  • Midterm Examination

    • Date: February 2424. This assessment will take place during the standard class time and within the usual classroom setting to maintain consistency.

  • Research Paper: "Issues in Canadian Policing"

    • Scope/Length: The body of the paper must be between 1010 and 1212 pages. This page count applies to the double-spaced text only; the title page and the reference list do not count toward this total.

    • Topic Selection: Students must choose a specific sub-topic following the colon (e.g., "Issues in Canadian Policing: The Use of AI in Surveillance"). Topics can include any theme discussed in class or found in course materials.

    • Academic Rigor: The paper requires a minimum of nine academic sources. At least four of these must be selected from the provided course readings, while at least five must be external peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly books.

    • Objective: The goal is to move beyond descriptive summaries and provide an academically informed, critical analysis of how a chosen issue affects the relationship between policing and Canadian society.

Course Themes and Content

  • Theoretical Foundations and Definitions

    • Exploration of the multifaceted roles of police, ranging from law enforcement to social service provision.

    • Analysis of "Police Culture" and the psychological frameworks that govern officer behavior.

  • Sociological Perspectives on Policing

    • Police Discretion: Examination of how individual officers make decisions in the field and the potential for bias or systemic influence in those choices.

    • Working Personality: Referencing Jerome Skolnick, the course analyzes the "danger-authority nexus," where the constant threat of danger and the requirement to exert authority shape a specific police worldview.

    • Technological Surveillance: Assessing the accountability of modern tools like CCTV and facial recognition. The work of scholars such as Brown, Hagerty, and Sandhu is used to critique how these technologies impact civil liberties.

Critical Discussions on Modern Policing

  • Mental Health and Deinstitutionalization

    • Analysis of how the lack of community mental health infrastructure has forced police into the role of "first responders" for mental crises, often with tragic consequences.

  • Socioeconomic and Political Economy

    • Discussion of the correlation between high crime rates and systemic socioeconomic deprivation, questioning if policing is used as a tool to manage poverty.

  • Racial Profiling and Marginalized Communities

    • A deep dive into the historical and contemporary tensions between police and marginalized groups. Includes a critique of TAVIS (Targeted Approach to Vulnerable Immigrant Communities) and the shift toward or away from neighborhood-based policing strategies.

Contemporary Topics in Policing

  • Predictive Policing Algorithms

    • The use of "Big Data" and risk assessment tools to identify geographic crime hotspots. Critical analysis focuses on whether these tools simply reify existing racial and class-based biases.

  • Police Militarization

    • Examination of the "normalization" of military-grade hardware (e.g., armored vehicles) and tactics in domestic law enforcement, and its impact on the perception of police as community guardians versus occupying forces.

Key Concepts and Analytical Framework

  • Core Question: "Why Police?"

    • The course transitions from asking what police do to why they exist as an institution, focusing on his concept of "Order Maintenance."

    • High Policing vs. Low Policing:

    • Low Policing: Traditional, local-level enforcement focused on public safety and the containment of common crime.

    • High Policing: State-level intelligence and surveillance designed to protect the interests of the state and maintain current power structures, often targeting political dissidents or marginalized groups.

Conclusion

  • The semester aims to equip students with an analytical lens to view policing not as a neutral necessity, but as a socially constructed and politically contested institution. Students will exit the course with a nuanced understanding of social order and justice.