Summary
This dissertation examines how the collision of neo-liberalism and regionally specific social forces have created differing manifestations of community based policing in three Canadian police services (Edmonton, Toronto and the RCMP K-Division). The contradictions that exist between the rhetoric and practice of community involvement explicit in the tenets of neo-liberalism and community policing and the dissonance between the neo-liberal concepts of marketization and consumer empowerment with that of community members' empowerment and citizenship are the central concerns of this project. The merger of neo-liberalism and community policing has taken place under common conditions of downsizing, fiscal downloading and organizational restructuring. These conditions have not, however, led to a consistency of application. Organizational and operational reform have varied from police service to police service. The political, economic and social variables differ across regions, as do the stimuli for reform and the manner in which community policing has been implemented. As a result, each region has uniquely articulated the neo-liberal tenet of community involvement in community based policing. Chapter one explores the global and national shift from the Keynesian welfare hegemony to that of Neo-liberalism. Chapter two is an analysis of Edmonton Police Service's wholesale implementation of community policing. Chapter three explores the range of reform initiatives from the perspective of broad RCMP organizational shifts and then within the context of contract policing in the Province of Alberta (K-Division). Chapter Four examines how Toronto Police Service sought to control the restructuring process for its own internal ends. The final chapter summarizes the contradictions in the restructuring efforts of each police service. The disjuncture between the rhetoric and practice of community empowerment and how they differ or are similar in each site are the focus of this discussion.