Policing in Today's 'Sophisticated' Society
- Publication
- The Empire Club of Canada Addresses (Toronto, Canada), 29 Nov 1973, p. 131-142
- Speaker
- Higgitt, Commissioner W.L., Speaker
- Media Type
- Text
- Item Type
- Speeches
- Description
- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police now commemorating its first 100 years of service. A brief history of the RCMP. A discussion of the importance of the RCMP and the need for the support from the people, and for the people to be informed about law enforcement. A review of crime and crime statistics over the last few years. Some root causes. Drugs and violence. The problem of apathy. The importance of service to the RCMP.
- Date of Original
- 29 Nov 1973
- Subject(s)
- Language of Item
- English
- Copyright Statement
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- Full Text
- NOVEMBER 29, 1973
Policing in Today's "Sophisticated" Society
AN ADDRESS BY Commissioner W. L. Higgitt, ROYAL. CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE
CHAIRMAN The President, Robert L. ArmstrongMR. ARMSTRONG:
Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen: The glorious history of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police began soon after Confederation when the newly formed Government of Canada was encouraging the opening and settling of the West. There were threats of annexation from the United States of all or part of the Territory and it was deemed necessary to establish the rule of impartial law in order to prevent lawlessness. A decision was reached to recruit, equip and train a mobile mounted police force that would move onto the plains ahead of the settlers. A proposed name for the force was "North West Mounted Rifles" and the news, which appeared in the press, caused concern in Washington. Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, recognised the delicacy of the situation and drew his pen through the words "Mounted Rifles" which appeared on the draft bill and replaced them with "Mounted Police". The North West Mounted Police Act was given Royal Assent on May 23, 1873.
On July 8, 1874, two groups of approximately 150 recruits each were sent: one group over the Dawson route to Fort Garry; and the other, with approval of the United States Government, to Fargo, North Dakota. The groups joined forces at Fort Dufferin, just north of the international border, and started the long march west to the Rockies and into the history of Canada. The Government of Canada had gambled heavily on the ability of a handful of men to carry law and order into the prairies. The spirit of those men made the gamble pay off. The settlers who came in thousands found peaceful communities in which the rule of law prevailed, even in the most remote settlements. The prairies grew and developed without lynch law, massacres or "the rule of the six gun". The present force of twelve thousand could not have asked for a stronger or richer heritage.
The expression "the Mounties always get their man" is a creation of fiction closer to the Hollywood Rose Marie kind of Mountie than to the real thing.
"I solemnly swear that I will perform the duties required of me as a member of the Royal North West Mounted police, without fear, favour or affection of or towards any person."
That was part of the oath of office required on enlistment in the ranks of the original force. The key words "without fear, favour or affection" became the title of a book, the author of which was Vernon A. M. Kemp, a former Assistant Commissioner. The motto of the Force which appears on its official crest is "Maintiens le Droit"-"Uphold the Right".
The oath of office was taken by William Leonard Higgitt, present Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at Regina in September 1937. After three years in Saskatchewan, he was assigned to special duties in the then Intelligence Branch of the force, being promoted to the Commissioned rank of Inspector in 1952. Then, after two years as a personnel officer in Ontario, he was transferred to Montreal assuming responsibility for the direction and supervision of investigative work in the western half of Quebec, excluding Montreal.
After three years he returned to Headquarters in the Security Service of the Force. In 1960, Commissioner Higgitt was posted to London, as Liaison Officer for the U. K. and Western Europe. Returning to Ottawa in 1963, our speaker four years later became Director of Security Service and Assistant Commissioner. In 1969 he was appointed Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Commissioner Higgitt was invested with the insignia of Commander in the most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem by His Excellency, Governor General Michener, our Honorary President and a highly respected Past President of this Club.
In September, 1972, Commissioner Higgitt was elected President of the world-famous international criminal police organization INTERPOL. So, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is clear from the foregoing that our speaker has far more important duties than the glamorous one of being "The Commissioner of the Musical Ride".
I am proud to present to this audience, in honour of the centennial year of the world-famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police, its distinguished Commissioner, William L. Higgitt, who will speak to us on the subject, "Policing in Today's 'Sophisticated' Society".
Commissioner Higgitt.
COMMISSIONER HIGGITT:
It is indeed a pleasure for me to be here with you today. We in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been commemorating our first one hundred years of service to Canada during 1973, and as the Commissioner of the Force I have enjoyed a very exciting year, travelling to every part of this great country and meeting and talking to thousands of people. During our Centennial Year we have invited all Canadians to join with us in our celebrations and thereby get to know us better. The response has been tremendous. We in the Force have had a most thrilling-and most gratifying-100th birthday.
Our Centennial Year is fast drawing to a close and we are looking forward to meeting the challenges that lie ahead. In thinking of this year and of the way the people of Canada have come forward to honour us, I have asked myself, "Why do Canadians feel this way about the Force?" "Why have they taken us into their hearts?" I think I have the answer-service. We have been serving Canada for one hundred years. When it established the North West Mounted Police in 1873 the Government of Canada established a truly unique force. The first task assigned to it was to move out into the vast and largely unknown expanse of the Canadian prairie, meet and establish friendly relations with the native people, establish Canadian sovereignty over the area, and provide orderly conditions for peaceful settlement.
The original Force consisted of three hundred men recruited in Eastern Canada. It is significant, I think, that not only did these few early adventurers carry out their assigned tasks, operating on foot and on horseback, under the most primitive of conditions, but they did it without violence. It is a matter of pride for us even today that not a single shot was fired in anger by any member of the Force during its first twelve years of existence. Not many have been fired since either. Peace and relative tranquility were brought to the Canadian West and maintained there without the trauma and disorder that characterized the plains to our south.
The individual mounted policeman became a familiar figure in the West. When the settlers started to move out in great numbers, he was already there. He was certainly familiar as a policeman, but his was a broader service. He was a friend, often a doctor, a counselor, a carrier of mail. He brought food, he found lost persons, he helped those in trouble, he arranged weddings, and he buried the dead. He became a part of those early communities.
Later frontiers: in the Yukon in 1894; in the Mackenzie Valley, the shores of Hudson Bay and the Arctic Coast by 1903; in the high Arctic, the Arctic Islands in 1920; we were there establishing Canadian sovereignty and an official Canadian government presence. The Force provided that presence but it also provided those other services that it had become known and respected for on the prairies years earlier. I like to think that this tradition of service is firmly established not only in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but in all Canadian police forces. I also like to think that this is what the Canadian people were acknowledging when they joined us in our Centennial celebrations this past summer. It will be an honour for us to continue to serve Canada and Canadians. We have always been given such tremendous support.
This brings me to the more serious part of my talk. Here in Canada I am satisfied we do have the best police service in the world. Canadian police forces are well staffed and well equipped to combat crime in today's fast moving, so called "sophisticated" society. I don't think we need more laws, or tougher laws, to enable us to continue providing a good police service for you. We need your support and your help in enforcing the laws as they stand right now. Remember, the job of a policeman came into being so that other citizens would not have to interrupt their regular daily routines to band together to put down lawlessness. I don't need to remind you that even in our own civilized society an interruption of police services brings chaos. We know that only too well. We have seen it happen. You may have been shocked by the forced realization that almost total lawlessness is very close to the surface in our very midst. We can all acknowledge that police services are necessary. Let us not forget then that the man who is providing that service is a good-living, law-abiding citizen, the same as you are, and that as citizens both you and your policeman have an obligation to preserve the peace. Remember too that most of the authority the policeman has is merely an extension of your own-if he was not providing the police service, you would have to provide it for yourself.
As informed citizens you should be concerned to see that the police of this country continue to have the necessary tools and the necessary freedom of action within the law to effectively do the job you have set before them. Don't allow yourselves to be stampeded into believing that it is only the criminal element that have the "rights" and need protection. Don't allow yourselves to believe either that policemen trample on the so-called civil rights of citizens. It just isn't true. Your civil rights are very seriously abused by every crime that is committed. I am one who believes that law-abiding citizens have priority in this respect. Every policeman is and must be prepared to justify his actions before our courts. I have faith in our judicial system and am prepared to leave the protection of my rights in their hands.
I made mention of our "sophisticated" society a moment ago. When I used that word I mentally put it in quotes because, from where I stand, and from where the lone policeman stands in the front line in his fight against crime, we see a pretty shocking sight.
Let's look at our so-called sophisticated society. Between 1967 and 1972 violent crimes increased in Canada from 77,614 to /10,605, (2,127 per week)-that's an increase of more than 42%. By violent crime I mean murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, rape, wounding, assault and robbery. Last year the overall crime rate did decline slightly but violent crime did not-murders were up from 426 to 480 (more than nine a week), an increase of over 12%; attempted murders were up from 346 to 412 (eight a week), an increase of 19%; manslaughters increased from 43 to 50 (one a week), up 16%. Rapes, that is reported rapes, only increased by 3%. That doesn't sound too bad if you say it fast, but it was still a violent, traumatic shock to the 1,286, mostly young, women who were brutalized. (Nearly 25 a week.) Is this sophistication?
These figures may shock you-nine murders, eight attempted murders, one manslaughter, twenty-five rapes and 2,084 woundings, assaults and robberies per week-three hundred per day. You may be thinking to yourselves that, terrible as they may be, these violent crimes are committed by the relatively small criminal element within our society. Don't you believe it.
Now you all drive cars so let's move on to traffic. Last year there were over half a million traffic accidents in Canada. We have a population of only 22 million, and we have only 10 million licensed drivers. Those drivers had more than 1,600 traffic accidents every day, about sixty-five every hour, more than one in every minute of every day. We killed more than six thousand. That's about seventeen a day. The Grey Cup game was held here last Sunday-about 36,000 people were in the stands. We eliminate an equivalent number on our highways every six years. The biggest jet aircraft carry about 365 passengers. If sixteen of them went down in a year I am sure we would all quit flying. What an outcry there would be. In addition to killing seventeen every day on our roads, we maim another five hundred. Violence in one form or another is all around us, and we seem to accept it. Why?
What causes this?Our improper use of alcohol helps. Most of us take a drink, sometimes more than one, at one time or another-just to add warmth to a pleasant social occasion perhaps. But all too often we lose sight of the fact that alcohol can be a killer. In 1972, liquor was a factor in 38% of the fatal motor vehicle accidents that occurred in areas under RCMP jurisdiction. I suppose there are some who would take comfort in the fact that this figure was below 40% for the first time in six years, but I don't.
Piled on top of the problems that alcohol creates, we have an escalating drug problem. I tire of those people who, in their attempt to gloss over this terrible problem, say that drugs are no worse than alcohol. Even if we accept this, which I don't, why would any right-thinking person want to even perpetuate our alcohol problem, let alone compound it with the inclusion of other drugs. This increase in the improper or illicit use of drugs is, for me, the saddest thing I have seen in my 36 years as a policeman. It ought to be tearing at all of our heart strings the way it is tearing at the hearts of those thousands of mothers and fathers who have watched their sons and daughters throw their young lives away.
Five years ago we had less than 4,000 heroin addicts in Canada, and we knew most of them. Today we estimate there are more than 16,000 addicts in this country- a four-fold increase. The saddest thing of all is that the age of these addicts is getting younger and younger. Today most heroin addicts are in the twenty to twenty-four year age group. Think of the waste-not only are these young people destroying themselves, they are being lost to our society just at the time when they should be looking forward to making their greatest contribution to it. Young lives of promise are being turned into short lives of suffering and despair.
There is a great debate going on across this country about the use of cannabis. Is it harmful or is it not? Does it lead to heroin or does it not? I am sure you all know that is from the cannabis plant that both marihuana and hashish are obtained. It may be difficult to conclusively and scientifically prove that cannabis leads to heroin, although it is not entirely impossible. I can tell you with certainty, however, that in fact it does. In 1972 we seized about 9,000 pounds of marihuana. Up to the end of September of this year we have seized double that, almost 18,000 pounds. In 1972 approximately 3,300 pounds of hashish was seized; in the past nine months of this year we have already seized over 4,800 pounds. As I said, I can't say with scientific certainty that marihuana and hashish must lead to the use of heroin, but I can state very positively that most of our 16,000 known heroin addicts started with marihuana, and if past experience is any indication, only a very small percentage of them will ever be cured. Why do we sit around debating cause and effect when experience shows that, for whatever reason, marihuana users become heroin users-and heroin users die young.
If we are not concerned for the welfare of these young people themselves, let's look for a moment at the economic waste of drug addiction. Of the 16,000 heroin addicts in Canada, each will probably take at least two capsules of heroin every day. A capsule of heroin sells for about twenty dollars, depending on local supply and demand. Sixteen thousand times twenty dollars times two is $640,000 every day. That's over 230 million dollars a year spent on heroin alone. And heroin is not the only costly drug. Not many months ago on the West Coast of Canada, 2,200 pounds of MDA, a restricted hallucenogenic drug, were seized from an illicit laboratory. Considering that MDA sells in the illegal market for three hundred dollars an ounce, that seizure had a value of ten and a half million dollars.
Marihuana use in Canada is now in what may be termed the small snowball stage. The largest percentage of marihuana users are between eighteen and twenty-five years of age and in the middle income group. The majority of heroin addicts are between twenty and twenty-four and in the lower income group. If past experience is any indication, we can anticipate that as marihuana use increases, the number of heroin addicts will also increase. As the middle income marihuana user becomes addicted to heroin, he will, typically, become less productive with a subsequent drop in legitimate income. As he seeks ever increasing amounts of heroin to satisfy his habit, he will be forced to turn to crime to support that habit. He becomes a loser. Society loses too. Is this sophistication?
Drugs and violence represent serious problems. They are obvious ones, but they are not our only problems. The white-collar criminal is not so obvious. He wears a business suit, he works in a modern office, and he is responsible for stripping this nation of untold millions of dollars annually.
Unlike the drug pusher, the rapist, or the murderer, whose crimes of violence and passion arouse public indignation, the white-collar criminal carries out his schemes in such a way that the community seldom realizes what is happening. He is assisted in the perpetration of his fraudulent schemes by public apathy and unwitting acquiescence. Recently in a Canadian city, two years of investigation into the affairs of a bankrupt business showing an unexplained deficiency of half a million dollars, terminated in a successful prosecution and the recovery of a substantial part of the deficit for the benefit of the creditors. At first glance this had appeared to be an unfortunate but normal business failure.
An officer of another large Canadian firm was found to have devised a complex scheme whereby he was able to submit falsified invoices totalling over three-quarters of a million dollars to a subsidiary company for services which were never performed. The police investigation resulted in the conviction of the individual involved and the recovery of close to half a million dollars.
These are but two examples. The white-collar criminal is operating in this country today. His schemes are often very sophisticated, and, generally speaking, many such crimes go undetected.
Public apathy allows crime to flourish. Organized crime is ready to move in wherever there is an easy dollar to be made at the expense of others, and thrives on such things as trafficking in narcotics, prostitution, gambling and loan sharking. Illicit profits are invested in legitimate businesses. Sometimes, we are quite certain, this is with the full knowledge of otherwise honest businessmen who don't seem to be bothered about the source of the funds. Fraud investigations may well involve millions of dollars. Organized crime will use any means at its disposal to reap its profits. No business or profession can consider itself immune. These criminals will endeavour to exploit any situation that shows promise, and they can be ruthless. Yet when our investigators attempt to obtain information about these dangerous and illegal operations, people with knowledge sometimes won't come forward. They don't want to get involved. What they don't realize is that they are involved. As citizens we all have a responsibility to stop crime wherever and whenever we find it.
The violence, the drug abuse, the highway deaths and horrible injuries, the frauds. These are all around us. They are reported in our newspapers, they are talked about on our television sets. But where are the voices of concern about what is happening in our society? Where are your voices, the voices with influence in this country? Why aren't you, every one of you, coming forward? It is the responsibility of every one of us to support the fight against lawlessness. Let's be honest-it may cost you. It may mean losing a contract. It may mean losing some money, or some time, but it is your responsibility too. This is your society and it is up to every one of you to help shape it in the way you wish it to be shaped. It is no good waiting for your neighbour to speak up, for he may be waiting for you.
The human mind has a great capacity for ignoring what it does not wish to see. While this may be merciful in some contexts, it can also be suicidal.
People say to me, if all this is going on, if crimes of violence are increasing, what is wrong with the police? Why don't they put a stop to it?
My answer is this: there is nothing wrong with the police. We have very fine police forces in this country and we should thank God for them. I believe the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which I have had the honour of serving for more than thirty-six years, is one of the best police forces in the world. Right here in Toronto you have a very fine municipal police force, one of the best there is. But the fact is, the police need the support of the public. Remember: the police are all that stand between you and the criminal groups I have been talking about. Without your support, not your quiet support, but your loud vocal support and concrete assistance, without this the police cannot be truly effective.
Perhaps you should ask yourselves now and again, what makes a man become a policeman?
It's not the glamour of the job, because that wears off very quickly. It's not the pay, because policemen don't become rich.
What then?As I said at the beginning of my talk, I believe it is the ideal of service. Speaking as I do for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, service has been our hallmark throughout our existence, service not only in our jobs as policemen, but also in our role as members of the community in which we live and work.
While I have pointed out that young people are turning to drugs of one kind or another, please don't think I despair for our young people as a whole. To be sure, it is sad to see the waste of these young lives when they turn to drugs or alcohol as a crutch. It is discouraging to see them drop out of school, to hear them blame their misfortunes on the "older generation", to see them give up.
But the vast majority are taking advantage of all the good and wonderful opportunities our society has to offer. Each year, I believe, we recruit into the RCMP a cross-section of the best of Canadian youth, youth who have not given up, but who want to grasp the best of what we can offer, who want to have a productive life, who want to serve their society in the best way they can.
While I am speaking for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, I believe what I am saying is true of other police forces as well. Get to know your local policeman, talk to him and find out what makes him tick.
As we in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police prepare to enter our second century of service to Canada, we are facing head on the problems of the '70s. Our role remains as it has always been, to preserve the peace, to prevent crime, to enforce the laws of Canada, her provinces and municipalities, and to apprehend criminals and offenders and bring them to justice.
The tools we have to work with are in many ways different from those we had a hundred years ago, but then, many of the problems we face today were unheard of when the Force was formed a hundred years ago. But we mean to carry on in the service of our society with the same determination and dedication that has motivated our members throughout the years.
We look to every one of you to assist us, to raise your voices in support, not only of your national police force, but of your local police forces. We need your help, we need your cooperation.
Let us open our eyes and see what is happening around us. Then, let us not pass on by, but rather resolve to strengthen all that is good and to remove all that is a blight on our society insofar as this is possible.
I speak for all members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when I say what a privilege it has been to serve the citizens of this country for a hundred years. We look forward eagerly to the challenges and opportunities of our second century. It is my pledge to you as it is to all Canadians that we will carry on in keeping with our highest traditions. We will continue to do our best.
Commissioner Higgitt was thanked on behalf of The Empire Club of Canada by Lieutenant-Colonel John G. B. Strathy.
