For some communities in Canada, the problem isn’t that police are absent — it’s that they are present in all the wrong ways. Street checks, frequent stops, and constant surveillance mark daily life. Yet when those same communities call for help in emergencies, response is slow, dismissive, or absent. This is the paradox of overpolicing and underprotection.
What Overpolicing Looks Like
Street checks and carding: Disproportionately targeting racialized and Indigenous people.
Excessive enforcement: Minor infractions policed aggressively, from loitering to fare evasion.
Surveillance-heavy presence: Visible patrols and stop-and-frisk-style tactics in certain neighbourhoods.
Criminalization of poverty: Fines, tickets, and arrests for survival-related behaviours.
What Underprotection Looks Like
Slow emergency response: Calls dismissed or deprioritized.
Mistrust at the scene: Victims of crime questioned more harshly than perpetrators.
Neglect of systemic risks: Gender-based violence, hate crimes, and missing persons cases often under-investigated.
Resource excuses: Claims of “limited capacity” used to justify under-response in marginalized areas.
Canadian Context
Indigenous communities: Documented cases of RCMP under-responding to violence against Indigenous women and girls.
Racialized neighbourhoods: Higher police presence, yet lower confidence in protection.
Northern and remote areas: RCMP detachments spread thin, leaving residents unprotected, while still enforcing low-level offences.
Urban encampments: Heavy enforcement of bylaws without equivalent protection from violence or exploitation.
The Challenges
Erosion of trust: Communities feel criminalized rather than protected.
Legitimacy crisis: Police seen as agents of control, not safety.
Public safety gap: Crimes go unreported because victims don’t believe help will come.
Unequal justice: Who gets protection depends on where they live and who they are.
The Opportunities
Shift priorities: Rebalance police work away from surveillance and low-level enforcement toward real protection.
Alternative responders: Expand community-based crisis and safety teams.
Accountability mechanisms: Measure police not by number of stops or tickets, but by quality of protection delivered.
Community input: Let communities define what “safety” means for them.
The Bigger Picture
A system that polices without protecting is not delivering justice — it’s deepening inequality. Public safety isn’t about presence for its own sake, but about meaningful, equitable protection.
The Question
If safety means both freedom from harm and freedom from harassment, then why do so many communities get neither? Which leaves us to ask: how can Canada end the cycle of overpolicing and underprotection to build trust in true community safety?
Overpolicing and Underprotection
The Paradox of Presence and Absence
For some communities in Canada, the problem isn’t that police are absent — it’s that they are present in all the wrong ways. Street checks, frequent stops, and constant surveillance mark daily life. Yet when those same communities call for help in emergencies, response is slow, dismissive, or absent. This is the paradox of overpolicing and underprotection.
What Overpolicing Looks Like
What Underprotection Looks Like
Canadian Context
The Challenges
The Opportunities
The Bigger Picture
A system that polices without protecting is not delivering justice — it’s deepening inequality. Public safety isn’t about presence for its own sake, but about meaningful, equitable protection.
The Question
If safety means both freedom from harm and freedom from harassment, then why do so many communities get neither? Which leaves us to ask:
how can Canada end the cycle of overpolicing and underprotection to build trust in true community safety?