COMMUNITY LOSES WITH TATTLE-TALE JUSTICE

"I spy with my little eye ... something that is green."

This simple children's game has now become a tool of law enforcement.
Warning of the coming Armageddon of super-evil pot growers armed with
dangerous hydroponic equipment, bacterial agents and high-intensity lights,
the police have now asked the public to report any homes emitting pungent
odours.

Despite seeking a budget of $688 million for the coming year in Toronto
alone, the police say they lack sufficient resources to combat the
proliferation of grow-ops. Not willing to admit defeat, the Ministry of
Community Safety and the Association of Chiefs of Police held a summit last
month at which members of the public, real estate and insurance agents, and
hydro officials were all recruited to help the police root out criminal
horticulturalists. While the police were trying to deputize a horde of
snitches, the gun violence in Scarborough continued to explode.

In principle, I embrace increased community participation in the
administration of criminal justice; however, it would be far more
productive for the police to foster a community response to increasing gang
violence. Concerned residents must be provided with safe avenues for
reporting gang activity without fear of reprisal. This is far more valuable
that relying upon real estate agents to assess the moral character of their
clients.

Fostering a culture of community surveillance is healthy when the community
is unified in its concerns and fears. Clearly, there is a consensus about
gang violence, but the debate continues over the proper legal response to
marijuana. The peering eyes of a neighbourhood watch can be remarkably
divisive and unhealthy if the community has mixed opinions about the
dangers of the conduct under surveillance.

So to convince a community of the dangers of grow-ops, the police produce
unsubstantiated statistics about fires, rotting floorboards, toxic
chemicals and huge economic losses due to theft of hydro. I think the
police have constructed an imaginary monster, but if they are right about
the fires, the explosions, the rot and the mould, then why would they need
the community to be their eyes and ears? Eventually, all the growers will
be discovered with little investigative effort as houses collapse or go up
in flames.

In the past few decades, the calls to increase community participation
spoke to a vision of restorative justice in which compassion, authenticity
and social harmony would be the defining features. Now restorative justice
has been traded for tattle-tale justice, and in that trade the community
can only stand to lose. A peaceful neighbourhood is unattainable when
neighbours snoop on each other for signs of criminality to report to
authorities for small rewards.

The real irony of this call for community surveillance is that it
represents a return to a system of justice we condemned more than 150 years
ago. Before the birth of professional prosecutors and professional police
forces in the latter half of the 19th century, the community policed itself.

To foster an effective community response, the state exploited people's
basic emotions of fear and greed. The historical fear factor is obviously
represented by the fact that we publicly executed criminals for more than
350 capital offences.

The greed factor is a bit less obvious. In the early days of the common law
we relied upon the concept of "hue and cry" by which every able-bodied
person in the community was legally obligated to assist in apprehending the
criminal. Heavy fines would be imposed upon citizens who failed to respond
to the "hue and cry" of a victim of crime.

When increased mobility and urbanization fragmented communities, it became
impossible to determine who was a community member for the purpose of the
hue and cry. So we turned to a detailed system of rewards as the catalyst
for community involvement. The roots of modern policing were founded upon a
state policy of paying private citizens for the apprehension of criminals.

In the mid-19th century, professional law enforcement was established
largely because relying upon fear and greed proved to be ineffective,
corrupt and a recipe for miscarriages of justice.

More than 127,000 people currently work in the Canadian criminal justice
industrial complex and it costs more than $11 billion annually to keep the
system running. Nonetheless, the police believe they are still ill-equipped
to fight the green tide of cultivation crime, so they are prepared to dish
out lots of blood money for anyone who responds to their cries for help.
The ancient "hue and cry" has been replaced by the modern "rat and pay."