THIN BRUISED LINE; THE IMMINENT THREAT TO POLICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY. Doug Clark an award winning journalist and author of the “Thin Bruised Line: The Imminent Threat to Police and Public Safety”, has once again turned his writing skill to the policing community. This is a well written book that is supported by extensive in-depth research and not only outlines the cause of the failure of leadership in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and how these kinds of organizational failures affect the state of policing in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well as in other police Forces in Canada. This book does more than highlight problems in the Policing community it also outlines ways and methods to attain good leadership which will in turn improve the state of policing. The book, the Thin Bruised Line; The Imminent Threat to Police and Public Safety, is the only book I have personally read, that outlines the origins of the failure of leadership in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The failures identified by the author, being the direct result of political interference, thus forced the Royal Canadian Mounted Police into being managed in a manner the same as the trendy private-sector businesses, totally without consideration for the nature of policing. Political interference in the management of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that has resulted in a failure in the promotional system, community policing programs that have no means of measuring effectiveness but look good and feel good to elected officials and the ultimate failure in the ability to effectively police the citizens of this country The author identifies that policing is unique and cannot be lumped in with any other type of business. The author is critical of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police decision to abandon it’s traditional method of identifying a leader based on their experience and work ethic and turn to a management system based only on surveys and studies and questionable measures which have lead to a failure to recognize good and true leadership within it’s ranks. The new leadership, as selected by the new system, appears more willing to be subservient to it’s political masters who in turn appear to value the bottom line as an accurate measure of leadership. The focus on financial restraint is either directly or indirectly responsible for placing the safety of officers and to some extent the citizens of the areas policed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at risk. The author indicates that the start of the failures of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police started with Commissioner Inkster however from the perspective of a serving member, at that time, I would think he should have went as far back as Commissioner Simmonds . In conclusion, the subsequent Governments of the day have all appointed persons to review, study, conduct surveys, hold public enquiries and report their findings all in the guise of correcting what is perceived to be wrong with policing in Canada today, however none have identified the root of the problem. It is clear, even in this book, that everyone in Canada can police but it is precious few that can be police persons, doing their jobs daily to protect the citizens of this country, notwithstanding the interference of these so called experts. Review by |