{"id":111629,"date":"2026-09-17T16:54:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=111629"},"modified":"2026-09-17T16:54:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:54:47","slug":"canadian-courts-take-police-misconduct-seriously-but-researchers-say-sentencing-alone-cant-fix-a-broken-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/09\/canadian-courts-take-police-misconduct-seriously-but-researchers-say-sentencing-alone-cant-fix-a-broken-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian courts take police misconduct seriously, but researchers say sentencing alone can\u2019t fix a broken system"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent study explores how Canadian courts respond when police officers break the law.<\/p>\n

The research, co-led by Brock University Assistant Professor of Political Science Danielle McNabb and University of Guelph Associate Professor of Political Science Kate Puddister, presents the first large-scale empirical analysis of how Canadian courts sentence police officers convicted of breaching the public\u2019s trust.<\/p>\n

The study examines the concept of breach of trust, how the Canadian criminal court system responds to police officers as offenders and how sentencing fits within the wider ecosystem of police accountability and oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreach of trust, which is a criminal offence in Canada, recognizes there are certain types of officials who are in positions of trust and who hold a lot of power, so we expect these individuals to be held to a higher standard and held to account when they abuse the authority society has granted them,\u201d McNabb says.<\/p>\n

Drawing on 93 sentencing decisions involving more than 100 officers between 1990 and 2024, the study finds that judges consistently treat police criminality seriously \u2014 emphasizing denunciation and deterrence in 92 per cent of cases \u2014 yet the researchers argue this individualized approach can\u2019t address the deeper, systemic drivers of police misconduct.<\/p>\n

The authors are calling for two concrete reforms. The first is a\u00a0<\/strong>Criminal Code amendment creating a specific aggravating factor for offences committed by police officers, formalizing what courts already do informally and ensuring consistent treatment across jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

In criminal law, aggravating factors require judges to consider imposing a harsher sentence where certain circumstances are present. For instance, in Canada, if a crime was motivated by hate or involved intimate partner violence, judges must consider imposing a serious sanction.<\/p>\n

McNabb says police criminality poses a similar, important problem for society. Therefore, an officer-specific aggravating factor would require judges \u2014 in all criminal cases involving a police officer offender \u2014 to consider imposing a serious sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would encourage courts to consider the wider, systemic and institutional context of police criminality. It would also help to ensure that sentences are always aimed at repairing the public trust that is diminished when police officers commit crime,\u201d McNabb says.<\/p>\n

The second reform is greater public transparency around case outcomes \u2014 from investigation through sentencing \u2014 so both the public and police themselves can evaluate how accountability actually functions.<\/p>\n

The researchers caution these reforms are partial fixes. Sentencing an individual officer, however severely, cannot touch departmental culture, the \u201cblue wall of silence\u201d or the disproportionate rates of police violence experienced by Black, Indigenous and other racialized communities. As the authors put it: courts can address the rotten apples, but not the rotten barrels or orchards.<\/p>\n

The study includes a wealth of information about police criminality, including:<\/p>\n