02-13-2024, 02:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-13-2024, 02:18 AM by danbrotherston.)
(02-12-2024, 11:05 PM)dtkvictim Wrote: I don't think I've seen (horse) mounted police since roughly around the pandemic. I have seen pairs out on bicycles a few times during each summer. I have never seen an officer patrolling on foot.
As much as I'd prefer police walking a beat and engaging with the community instead of driving around in cruisers, I don't think this is primarily a policing issue. It's a mental health, housing, drug use, and criminal justice system issue. These problems being present in every Canadian city regardless of the police force makes that pretty clear. Almost invariably the most egregious offenses across Canada that make the news show the perpetrators to have unbelievably long criminal records meaning the police are doing their job. It's the government and the courts, not the police, that decide who is fit to live among the public. It's the government and us who elect them that decide not to take housing, drug use, and mental health more seriously.
Edit: I should clarify I don't mean to absolve the police of needing to improve, only to put more blame and focus on where I think the biggest issues are
I wouldn't blame the courts, they are applying the sentences prescribed by the law, and there are lots of reasons for recidivism, and "too short/lenient sentences" isn't a reason. More likely the lack of focus on rehabilitation in our justice system is a cause, but very generally, people who engage in criminality are not given the tools (in the justice system, or without). For example, counselling is expensive and often unavailable, so people with a record of domestic violence who would absolutely benefit from such help cannot get it reliably.
And this is a broader problem, whether related to serious criminality or not (and it is most often not) our society's social safety net is increasingly threadbare.