i never did understand what people meant by a "police state", could someone clear this up for me? i'm only curious becasue i heard awhile back they wanted to turn provinces awhile back into "states" and post state police here in canada, what is so bad about other then the fact "Royal Canadian State Trooper's" doesn't make any sense, i have also read and heard people say during my visit's to the United states that we (canadian's) live in igloo's.... we don't live in igloo's....

I guess state police is just like border patrol,but on a state level.Not sure though,cuz I'm not an American.

Wikipedia - State Police

State police are a type of sub-national territorial police force, particularly in Australia and the United States. Some other countries have analogous police forces, such as the provincial police in some Canadian provinces, while in other places, the same responsibilities are held by national police forces. The main focus of many State Troopers in the United States is highway safety .

Wikipedia - RCMP

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) (French: Gendarmerie royale du Canada (GRC), literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada'; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force') is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body. The RCMP provides policing services to all of Canada at a federal level, and also on a contract basis to the three territories, eight of Canada's provinces (the RCMP does not provide provincial or municipal policing in either Ontario or Quebec), more than 190 municipalities, 184 aboriginal communities, and three international airports.

Don't confuse state police with a police state. A good example is Australia. The country is divided up into a number of states and territories with its own laws and government (but they are inferior to the federal government and federal laws) and each state has its own police force to enforce to enforce all of the state's criminal laws but only within the borders of that state. Although Australia's policing is very centralised and bureaucratic it's a good way to explain it.

When you look at America with a lot less of a centralised service (county police forces, sheriff's offices and then state police and then your federal authorities) you can understand it but a bit differently. In the United States you have the country police and sheriff's offices that are responsible for just local areas and state police that are primarily involved for more serious crimes or crimes that cross counties (but only within that one state).

There is also the federal police that enforces commonwealth (federal) law across the country and around its borders.

Edited March 25, 201214 yr by Ekalb

I don't know if that was to me, but I was just going by what the OP put in the title.

Nah it was to the OP, he mentioned 'police states' but then went on to talk about state police. The former being a nation (state=country/nation) that is under control-dominated policing and forceful government regulation and surveillance (what all the screaming liberals are claiming every western country is becoming) and the latter being the organisation of police officers that enforces laws in their jurisdiction of a state (state=division of a country).

Edited March 25, 201214 yr by Ekalb

I though a police state was referring to state police and bringing them to canada, @Ekalb, what exactly would be a federal police force? RCMP? FBI wouldn't fall under that or U.S marshall would they?

Nope

po·lice state

Noun:

A totalitarian state controlled by a political secret police force.

Federal police force is sort of a broader term, it only applies so well to Australia because we have consolidated a lot of federal law enforcement functions into the 'Australian Federal Police'. In America you could say that it'd definitely mirror the FBI and US Marshals. RCMP I don't know enough about to compare it. RCMP as it currently stands sort of does everything we have discussed, local/municipality law enforcement and national policing operations.

Edited March 25, 201214 yr by Ekalb

wouldn't RCMP be considered federal police? cause they do handle international stuff and are into pretty much everything such as :

1)going over seas

2)Regular Patrol

3)Security

4)Air Patrol

5)Water Patrol (only in the maritimes nova scotia PEI Newfoundland and the west side of canada)

6)Airport police (British Columbia)

7)Dealing's in the United States with the FBI

8)Custom's

i'd give you a +1 Ekalb but i think rep is gone

@TomH, i guess i coulda looked it up eh? lol but i wanted to see what everybodies views were on a the subject

State Police, in the US, also handles road policing (in fact, one common name for these agencies is "Highway Patrol"). The public typically knows them as the guys who hand out tickets.

The US doesn't really have a federal police force. Canada has the RCMP, which is a police force with nationwide jurisdiction. In the US, agencies like the FBI and US Marshals Service aren't police forces; they enforce laws, but they don't have the "maintain order" function of regular police (nor do they patrol). There are "federal police" agencies, but they have very well-defined jurisdictions. One reason for this is that almost all US criminal law is at the state level; technically speaking, if you murder someone, unless they have some federal role, the federal government can't prosecute you.

EDIT: And for "police state", think 1984.

Edited March 25, 201214 yr by cp702

wouldn't RCMP be considered federal police? cause they do handle international stuff and are into pretty much everything such as :

Well yeah they're a bit of a different case since they pretty much are local police/state police/federal law enforcement all in one convenient package

wouldn't RCMP be considered federal police? cause they do handle international stuff and are into pretty much everything such as :

The RCMP is considered a Federal Police Force as members have jurisdiction anywhere in the country rather than the province that they police. The RCMP can also be considered a State Police, Regional Police and Municpal Police Force in certain areas