Police act (Canada)

In the Canadian Republic, a police act is a statutory law enacted either by the Parliament of Canada or by a provincial assembly (the legislative branch of one of the 13 provinces' provincial governments), which sets out the establishment procedure and organisational parameters of the respective province's provincial police and its multiple county constabularies, as well as those agencies' areas of jurisdiction and policing authority.

Police acts are more or less identical in form, as they each address essentially the same matters, the primary differences being the wording used and the exact delineation of the responsibilities of the provincial police and county constabularies, which varies slightly between each province. Some of the things all 13 provincial police acts and the federal National Police Act have in common are that the highest-ranking sworn officer of the provincial police and RCMP is called the Commissioner, while the highest-ranking sworn member of a county constabulary is called the Chief Constable; other similarities include arrest protocol, namely, that all persons arrested by police must be charged within 24 hours or released, if charged must be made aware of all charges and provided with the immediate opportunity to contact legal representation (including representation by a public defender for arrested individuals unable to afford private representation), and are entitled to a bail hearing within 36 hours of arrest; if granted bail, the arrested individual is to be immediately released with a singed promise to appear document guaranteeing the arrestee will appear before a particular court on the date and at the time given by the promise to appear.

All corps of the Royal Canadian Gendarmerie (RCG) enforcing civilian law, like all civilian law enforcement agencies at the federal level, are also subject to all provisions of the National Police Act, such as the Public Security Corps, which in peacetime come under Public Security Canada (civilian) jurisdiction, only coming under Department of National Defence (DND) jurisdiction during war. RCG corps responsible for military matters such as the Military Police Corps and Special Operations Corps, which are always under DND (non-civilian) rule both during war and in peacetime, are governed by military law (namely the National Defence Act), and have no authority in any case to enforce civilian law, acting instead as provost or similar for the Canadian Forces.