Police area (Canada)

In Canada, a police area (French: zone de police) is a jurisdictional area for which a single territorial police force is responsible. They are not to be confused with the four Territories of Canada, which do not have police areas and are instead policed at the municipal, territorial and federal level by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Police areas were created to allow for the amalgamation of multiple municipal police agencies into more streamlined services covering a wider metropolitan area. A typical police area will consist of one or several counties and their constituent municipalities and unincorporated communities. For example, the Lower Mainland Police Area is under the jurisdiction of the Lower Mainland Constabulary (LMC), and consists of the seven counties which together make up the Lower Mainland/Metro Vancouver region; it is the largest police area in Canada by physical size and the third-largest by population, after the Toronto Metropolitan Police Area and the Montreal Metropolitan Police Area.