Those who have followed the quiet evolution of Canada-US cross-border policing, however, weren’t surprised. Law enforcement agencies in Canada and the US are now working together in an unprecedented way, says the RCMP—and the two countries are hammering out a plan to let agents in both countries drive back and forth across the border as though it wasn’t there.
“When you look at our environment, increasing travel and trade, more complex legal systems, continuing pressures with respect to resources and how we allocate...your investigative capacity has actually declined,” said RCMP Chief Superintendent Joe Oliver, describing the imperative behind co-operation.
“Taking into consideration the need for us to be more effective when you look at this question of economics and policing; taking into consideration that the Canada-US border is a huge area, a huge responsibility to monitor, detect, protect, and investigate, there’s a real need for us to work together.”
Mr. Oliver, who is the force’s director general for border integrity, granted a rare, wide-ranging interview to Embassy on April 4 on the subject of the evolution of cross-border law enforcement.
‘Where do you set the limit?’
Canadian and American police agencies are currently locked in private talks over how to effectively launch pilot projects that would allow American agents from organizations like the FBI and the US Drug Enforcement Administration to be accredited as police officers in Canada, with the power to arrest individuals on the street like any Canadian cop.
Specially-designated police can already conduct such operations in shared waterways, after the Harper government’s spring 2012 budget implementation legislation changed several Canadian laws to make permanent a program to accredit such maritime-based US and Canadian agents.
Certain designated members of the RCMP and US Coast Guard undergo specialized training, and when they head out on an operation, they are overseen by the host country’s officers, and operate under the host country’s criminal justice system.
The Canada-US Beyond the Border perimeter security plan, laid out in December 2011, calls for the “next generation” of this type of policing: moving the concept to land. But doing so hasn’t been easy: two pilot projects that were supposed to have been launched by last summer are still in legal limbo.
“We’re still trying to negotiate...the challenge is, in the land environment, it’s much more complex,” said Mr. Oliver.
“The possibility of having contact with the general public is greater, because of interaction with streets...it’s the visibility with the public,” he said.
“The other thing is that, in the maritime environment, you have a very fixed geographical area...in the land environment, where do you set the limit? Is it 10 kilometres from the border? Is it 20 kilometres from the border? Is it 25 kilometres?”
The RCMP doesn’t have an answer for that yet, he said.
But what the force is looking for is to allow its agents to work across the border in operations that require it—so it wouldn’t necessarily want Canadian agents to be accredited throughout the entire US, or vice versa.
“In terms of the vision, I don’t see Canadian officers being cross-designated and working in Los Angeles on a full-time basis. I mean, there are protocols, and we work joint investigations, but we don’t need that tool there,” he said.
“I think in terms of the next decade or so, we’d certainly like to see the evolution of integrated cross-border law enforcement. We’d take our crime-fighting capability to the next level, which is bringing the [maritime] concept to the land environment.”
From the 1990s to today
This vision, as Mr. Oliver describes it, is the end point of a long evolution in cross-border policing that began in the 1990s with Integrated Border Enforcement Teams, what he calls “the grandfather of integrated cross-border law enforcement.”
IBETs began as a response to a typical border problem, he said: smuggling.
“Because the volume of criminality taking place between the ports of entry, RCMP, US border patrol, and US customs got together and said ‘Look, what we need to do is start scheduling shifts together, we’ve got to be working the same high-threat areas together,’” said Mr. Oliver.
After 9/11, Canada and the US signed the Smart Border Declaration, which has an accompanying plan describing how police agents should co-operate closer and share more information. As part of that plan, Mr. Oliver said, IBETs were multiplied along the border.
At this point, the two countries were sharing information and decisions within the IBETs, and operating under a “strategic layer” that involved American agents at RCMP headquarters in Ottawa. The US Coast Guard and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement are both in Ottawa, he said, sharing intelligence and helping identify targets for the IBET teams to go after.
The IBET collaboration revealed some data. There were “113 organized crime groups” and “115 criminal entrepreneurs” that operate along the border, said Mr. Oliver. They were also able to gather data on drug and human smuggling.
But having the IBETs wasn’t enough, Mr. Oliver argued.
“If you run two parallel investigations, and you’re not co-ordinated, you’re not integrated in your priority-setting and so forth, then there are a lot of missed opportunities, and it becomes even more complex when it comes to, ultimately when you get to a prosecution...and it becomes more difficult for the Crown to prove a case.”
That’s when the two countries introduced the concept of Shiprider, the name given to integrated cross-border law enforcement over shared waterways. It began as a series of pilots in the mid-2000s at major sporting events.
“The evaluation and pilots informed us that this is a concept that works, this is a concept that gives us enhanced abilities, and the concept also demonstrates that we are being accountable, and we are respecting sovereignty.”
The two governments decided to move to entrench the concept permanently, drawing up a framework that was eventually signed in May 2009. The framework, said Mr. Oliver, lays out everything about how cross-border policing works, such as who has the authority to designate cross-border officers, the type of training they receive, what equipment they can use, how officers get accredited in each country, and which laws and rules apply where. It also lays out civilian oversight, and police discipline, he added.
Canada had to ratify that framework, which the government did as part of its budget bill in 2012. Two permanent teams are now being trained for the border between Blaine, Washington- and White Rock, BC, as well as Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ont. They are still getting up to speed, Mr. Oliver said.
‘Due process...will continue’
Since Embassy began reporting on the cross-border policing aspect of the perimeter plan, many individuals and groups have raised concerns about whether Canadian sovereignty would be hurt by allowing Americans to police Canada.
The RCMP itself recognized this concern publicly in May 2012, when Mr. Oliver and a colleague told a Senate committee they were planning on easing Canadians into the idea through “baby steps.” Now, Mr. Oliver is as confident as ever that the effort is strengthening Canadian independence.
“From a public safety perspective, this is a tool that enhances our capability to make our streets safer. If we can’t effectively fight cross-border crime, it becomes a risk when it enters the streets,” he said.
“If we miss those opportunities, then it becomes a local crime problem. It could be drugs on the streets of Surrey, it could be people being smuggled in, those types of things. This is about working more effectively with our counterparts.”
He also argued that since cross-border police are legally under the lead of the officers in the host country, then that host country’s justice system would apply.
“If there’s an arrest, there’s two options: we could prosecute in Canada, or there’s a formal extradition request. There’s no situation here where we’re talking about someone apprehended in Canada and is summarily returned to the United States...due process that exists today will continue to apply,” he said.
“From my perspective, the more ability we have to control our borders, I would say that’s actually strengthened sovereignty, as opposed to weakened it...if I have fewer tools to help me better protect our border, then can you say that you’re controlling it?”
Original Article
Source: embassynews.ca
Author: Carl Meyer
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