Observing and commenting on our police services is a turnoverarocktoday.com 2014 founding block, an anchor originating in the early 1960s and spurred on through the decades by too frequent police controversial and questionable practice.
‘The POLICING file – Farewell and Good Luck?’ from April 1st back in 2018 archived the file in favour of prioritizing a focus on Canada’s carceral systems, which had and has plenty of coverage, but with its impenetrable resistance to accountability and transparency, is a more pressing target. Intending to spotlight policing beyond the ‘farewell’ only when compelled netted ten postings in the last six years all the same.
And this prompted number eleven:
The last policing entry on January 16 in 2022, “Police & racism,” also skewered the Peel Regional Police. Back then, one of their officers had been rebuked by a judge for the fourth time in four years, criminal charges were thrown out for the fourth time in four years, all involving that officer’s interactions with black men. At that time, Peel Regional Police had recently partnered with the Ontario Human Rights Commission “to deal with systemic racism and discrimination in the force.” It seems from the latest incident that the Ontario Human Rights Commission is still trying to make an impact on systemic racism in Peel police.
)()(
August 13, 2025
Nishan Duraiappah, Chief,
Peel Regional Police Service,
Mississauga, ON L5N 8M5
Re: Again, still!
Dear Chief Duraiappah:
Your force has been working with the Ontario Human Rights Commission for a few years now, intending to ‘deal with systemic racism and discrimination.’ And yet again, in July we read in the Star about six of your officers and their interaction with Boysie Murray. Given what we know from recent history, there must be similar but lesser incidents in Peel that have gone unnoticed by the media.
In a force your size, you no doubt have a body tasked with evaluating potential police recruits to welcome promising candidates and weed out racists, cowboys, white supremacists, and the like. And I’m sure that body’s assessments keep in the back of its mind Sir Robert Peel’s Nine Principles of Policing, as do many police services.
With this before us, one question goes begging.
What in hell is going on with Peel’s police service?
)()(
Sir Robert Peel’s Nine Principles of Policing
Before 1829, London’s one and a half million population was serviced by about two thousand night-watchmen and constables from various authorities. The French had a well-organized police force with secret and political operatives. The British people opposed French influences and were suspicious of policing authorized by a national government, believing the job should be under local control.
Prime Minister Peel, considered the father of modern policing, had to “sell” his Metropolitan Police Department to Londoners. Some researchers believe the nine principles were authored by the first two commissioners of the force. In a concise form, they are:
Principle 1: The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
Principle 2: The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.
Principle 3: Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
Principle 4: The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
Principle 5: Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to the public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
Principle 6: Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law and to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.
Principle 7: Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
Principle 8: Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
Principle 9: The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
“When will they ever learn?”
Peter, Paul & Mary
“You can say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”
John Lennon
turnoverarocktoday 