The rate of police strength declining in Canada since 2011

Released: 2020-12-08

The demand for police services continues to grow, as evidenced by the 13.5 million calls for service received by police forces in 2018/2019, a 6% increase from the previous year. However, the rate of police officers per 100,000 population fell 1% from 2018, due to population growth.

Canada's police services are mandated with the essential task of administering and maintaining law and order across Canada and ensuring public safety. In addition, police services are one of the first responders to mental health calls, drug overdoses, suicides, public disturbances, motor vehicle accidents, and many other community well-being and safety issues that may not be criminal.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of police services has expanded to include enforcing legislation related to containing the pandemic, in addition to their regular duties. These include municipal bylaws, provincial and territorial health emergency acts and the federal Quarantine Act.

Based on the results of the Police Administration Survey conducted in 2019, a detailed analysis of the statistics on public policing personnel and expenditures from municipal, provincial and federal police services in Canada is presented in the new Juristat article published today, entitled "Police resources in Canada, 2019."

Readers should note that, while these data predate the pandemic, they provide important insight for federal and provincial government decision-makers, individual police services, as well as the officials responsible for police budgets.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the policing community, with the results of a special monthly data collection among 17 police services during the pandemic showing an increase in calls responded to by the police services participating in the study. Police services that were able to report data on calls for service responded to more calls related to general well-being checks (+12%), domestic disturbances (+10%) and mental health-related calls, such as responses to a person in emotional crisis or apprehensions under the Mental Health Act (+10%).

The rate of police officers is lower than in 2018, but calls were up in 2018/2019

Although there were 68,718 police officers in Canada on May 15, 2019, 186 more than on the same date in 2018, the growth of the Canadian population between these two years resulted, in 2019, in the lowest rate of police officers recorded since 2001. Dropping steadily since 2011, the rate of police strength was 183 officers per 100,000 population in 2019, 1% lower than in the previous year.

Chart 1 
Rate of police officers and civilian personnel per 100,000 population, Canada, 1962 to 2019

Compared with 2017/2018, all levels of policing reported responding to more calls for service. In 2018/2019, the number of calls for service received by police services across Canada rose 6% from the previous year to 13.5 million calls. This means that police services in Canada responded to an average of 1,540 calls for service per hour in 2018/2019. Among all police-reported calls for service, municipal police services handled just over two-thirds (67%), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) responded to 22%, the provincial police services to 11%, and First Nations police services to 1%.

The number of female officers in all ranks continues to grow

While the number of women in Canadian police services continues to rise, this growth has happened over a long period of time. The number of women has been steadily increasing since 1986 when data on sex were first collected. That year, women accounted for just under 4% of all officers, whereas in 2019, women represented 22% of all sworn officers. On May 15, 2019, there were 15,268 female police officers in Canada, an increase of 325 from the previous year.

Across the different officer ranks, female police officers held mostly constable positions, making up 23% of constables in Canada. Although women make up a slightly smaller proportion of both commissioned and non-commissioned officers, their presence in these roles continues to increase and is almost equivalent to the proportion of women among constables. From 2018 to 2019, the number of female commissioned officers rose from 556 to 655, accounting for 19% of all commissioned officers in 2019. This was the highest proportion of female commissioned officers since data collection began in 1986.

Chart 2 
Female officers as a percentage of total police officers, by rank, Canada, 1989 to 2019

Fewer than 1 in 10 police officers identify as a visible minority

Diversity and inclusion are central to discussions around police culture, in recognition of the importance of representing the various groups that make up the Canadian population within its personnel. Efforts are being made through various hiring policies. However, according to data from the 2016 Census, although 22% of Canada's population represented individuals designated as part of the visible minority population, as defined in the Employment Equity Act, in 2019, this was the case for 8% of all police officers (the same as the previous year) and 11% of recruits in Canada (12% in 2018). In the RCMP, officers who identified as visible minorities accounted for 12% of all police personnel, while in stand-alone municipal police services this proportion represented 7%.

The representation of Indigenous peoples in police services is close to what was seen in the last census

In 2016, nearly 5% of the Canadian population self-identified as Indigenous, namely First Nations peoples, Métis or Inuit, and on May 15, 2019, 4% (or 2,714) of police officers had identified as Indigenous, as well as 3% (or 69) of recruits. In Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario, the representation of Indigenous police officers was relatively close to the proportion of the Indigenous population for those provinces.

Compared with representation in the general population, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia had a larger proportion of officers identifying as Indigenous. The remaining provinces had a lower proportion of Indigenous officers compared with the proportion of Indigenous people in the total provincial population.

In First Nations police services, nearly two-thirds (63%) of police officers self-identified as Indigenous. Also, the proportion of Indigenous officers was 1% in stand-alone municipal police services, 2% in the Sûreté du Québec and Ontario Provincial Police, and 7% in the RCMP.

The number of civilian employees in police services is increasing

Police services are increasingly comprised of civilian employees, such as clerks, communications staff, managers, and other professionals who mostly take care of administrative support, operational communications, information technology services, reception services, and vehicle and facility services. In addition to sworn officers, police services employed 31,699 full-time equivalents as of May 15, 2019, an increase of 671 employees over 2018. Of this number, 26,878 were civilian employees (85%), 2,621 were special constables (8%) and 2,200 were recruits (7%).

Recruits accounted for most of the overall growth in civilian employees, with an increase of 540 from 2018 to 2019. The number of civilian employees rose by 50, and the number of special constables by 82. On May 15, 2019, women represented 71% of civilian personnel within police services, 35% of special constables, and 26% of recruits.

Police operating expenditures rose 1% from the previous year to $15.7 billion in 2018/2019

Across Canada, the 2018/2019 total operating expenditures for all police services amounted to $15.7 billion in current dollars. These expenditures are comprised of salaries and wages (65%), benefits (16%), and other operating expenditures (19%). These proportions have remained relatively consistent over time.

After accounting for inflation, total operating expenditures rose by 1% from the previous year, and have generally been on the rise since 1996/1997. On a per capita basis for Canada, using constant dollars, police operating expenditures amounted to a cost of $317 per person in 2018/2019, which was stable from the previous year. The per capita cost in 2018/2019, however, was the second highest since 2012/2013.

Chart 3 
Police expenditures per capita, current dollars and constant dollars, Canada, 1988/1989 to 2018/2019

Police services continued to invest in enforcement related to the legalization of cannabis in 2018/2019

In 2018, new legislation on impaired driving (Bill C-46) was enacted to strengthen the Criminal Code provisions related to driving while impaired by alcohol and drugs (including cannabis). These provisions gave the police new powers to do alcohol and drug testing.

In 2018/2019, police services spent $24.0 million on salaries to prepare for the legalization of cannabis (training provided or taken, research, and developing or implementing changes). In addition, police services spent $7.4 million on non-salary costs for such preparation (e.g. travel, cost of courses).

Several hours of training were given to many officers on enforcing the new cannabis legislation (the total number of hours does not include the training hours that Quebec officers would have taken at the École nationale de police du Québec). The training included use of the Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST), SFST refresher training, and drug recognition expertise.

According to the Juristat article "Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2019," police reported nearly 85,700 impaired driving incidents in 2019, over 14,800 more incidents compared with the previous year. After declining for six consecutive years, the rate of impaired driving (alcohol, drugs and unspecified) has increased the last two years, now with a reported rate of 228 incidents per 100,000 population. This marks a rate increase of 19% over the previous year, the largest increase since 1987.

Products

The article "Police resources in Canada, 2019" is now available as part of the publication Juristat (Catalogue number85-002-X).

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).