9 Decolonization and Policing
Stephanie Dyck
Title: Decolonizing Policing: How Can It be Achieved?
Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to identify how colonization has impacted the discipline of policing and to highlight the urgent need to decolonize this field of inquiry. Using a comparative analysis of Aboriginal policing models in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, this chapter seeks to uncover the good and the bad of these alternative policing models and how they have impacted their respective countries. As it stands, the traditional policing model does not uphold the standard we as a society should strive for. Community-based policing and Aboriginal policing models raise the bar on policing standards and may ultimately hold the answer to how we can achieve decolonized policing.
Introduction
Political unrest related to the criminal justice system has been on the rise over the last year. The case of George Floyd, a black man whose death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer was captured on film, sparked global discussion around racialized policing practices and calls for police reformation. Similarly, in Canada, the case of Colten Boushie, a young Indigenous man killed on a rural Saskatchewan farm, was just one of the many landmark cases calling for a review of policing practices with regards to race. The fact that these cases were not isolated events evidences the need to decolonize policing. The list of individuals victimized through racialized policing practices remains endless and those on it deserve recognition in their own right. There exists a police culture in which a “code of silence” stifles internal reporting, making protecting the “brotherhood” more important than doing the right thing. Victims of the horrendous acts inflicted by police are not always treated like victims; they may be criticized by the media, their images torn apart, and treated like criminals. These impacts of colonization are deeply rooted within the justice system and leave Indigenous groups, in particular, less well off.
While the police are a very important component of social protection and the maintenance of order, this idea of protection does not extend to all citizens. Decolonization of policing is clearly needed if Indigenous communities and other racialized groups in Canada are to be served equitably. To justify its treatment of Indigenous people, the colonial system strategically debased and criminalized Indigenous people in Canada. This resulted in social exclusion, greatly limited socio-economic potential, and caused associated mental health issues, which can all be fathomed as precursors to criminal behaviour and help to explain why Indigenous people are overrepresented by 500% within the Canadian justice system (John Howard Society, 2017). Police are the frontline of the justice system and must entertain no racial or personal bias, which implies the need to enforce a level of cultural and personal awareness among polic