What does DTK need?

[danbrotherston]

I thought this recent article from the CBC might be relevant to this discussion thread:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/lo...-1.6770341

In it, the author discusses a new "foot patrol" station in downtown London. Normally, I'm extremely weary of adding more policing to solve a public safety problem. However, if done properly, I think we would be well-served to imitate the 'Koban' stations of Japan:

https://www.nippon.com/en/features/jg00057/

I have been struggling to find out the perception of and behaviour of policing in different places. I think there are many aspects.

In Kitchener the biggest problem appears to be budgetary. Police forces seem to exist to perpetuate their budgets. That seems to be the primary motivation in any of their PR activities. "It's dangerous, and we make you safer". This even gets to the point of making...at best...misleading statements about both crime statistics and also about specific police involved incidents.

In many places in the US, I think there is a highly problematic police culture, even beyond policing sucking the plurality of the budget (and in some cases the majority), I get the sense that US LEOs have a "them or us" attitude with the general public, and often react...poorly...when they do not get the "respect" they feel they are "entitled" and worse, often see themselves (with good reason) as above the law. To say nothing of their chickenshit behaviour in the face of a single armed man murdering children in a school.

So in some ways WRPS isn't doing nearly so badly as those places.

I have trouble understanding how that culture and behaviour exist in other places I think because the public tends to be highly polarized on the topic of policing. It concerns me just how effective police PR is. Just look at our recent budget meeting, just how many councilors take the word of the police as gospel.

It is also the case that different parts of society perceive policing in different ways. Wealthy white suburbanites expect the police to be on their side against. People living rough in downtown may rightly see police as a harmful influence on their life, that they are powerless against.

While the interview you linked from London was .... not bad... the police weren't even leaning into the "we will punish those bad people downtown" vibe (they outright rejected it) but they were quick to justify their budget...as far as I could see...while the interviewer was good and gave a couple challenging questions, there was no other perspective given and it seemed to be a PR piece for the police.

I think the kind of thing shown in Japan or in London will work better when all of a society's demographics see police as a force for good...and I know that isn't the case in Kitchener...frankly, I found policing to be much more problematic the longer I stayed there.

Whether an initiative like in London will serve to advance that goal? I don't know. I do know that a big issue I have with policing is the lack of budgetary scrutiny...that clearly doesn't change here.