Law enforcement in the Canadian Republic

In the Canadian Republic, informally Canada, a sovereign state organised as a federal parliamentary republic, law enforcement is exercised on three levels: local, provincial/territorial, and federal. Each province and territory has its own police force, answerable to the respective province or territory's Ministry of Public Security (or similarly named executive department), which typically also oversee corrections, probation/parole and other matters pertinent to law enforcement and emergency preparedness.

In Canada's 12 provinces (the country's federated states, each provincial legislative assembly has a Police Act, which outlines the various areas of responsibility of provincial and local law enforcement and acts as the constituting instrument for all law enforcement agencies operating within the province (with the exception of federal agencies), delineating these agencies' areas of responsibility. The Parliament of Canada has also passed the Federal Police Act, which outlines and delineates the jurisdiction of federal law enforcement.

Local government
At the local level within the 12 provinces, each county (the upper tier of local government) has its own unique county constabulary, which in addition to providing primary policing and investigative services throughout the county, is also contracted by all constituent municipalities (the lower tier) of the county to provide local policing services, meaning no municipalities within a provincial county retain their own unique constabulary. County constabularies are democratically controlled by a police board, which consists of the chairperson of the county council and the mayors of each constituent municipality, all of whom have a single vote in electing the Police and Crime Commissioner, a civilian office responsible for appointing the Chief Constable of the county constabulary and acting on the police board's behalf between police board sessions/meetings.

The exception to this rule is the unitary authority, a unit of local government which combines the upper- and lower-tier levels of local government into a single level, and which is therefore not part of any county. The most famous examples are Toronto and Montreal, which each constitute a single level of local government immediately below the provincial level, and which each have their own police service. Like provincial police, local law enforcement agencies are governed by the ''Police Act’' of their respective province.

Within the 6 territories there exist units of local government; however, the territorial police (each answerable to the respective devolved territorial government) are contracted by all units of local government within the territories to provide local policing services, meaning that in any given territory, the territorial police is the only law enforcement agency apart from federal agencies like the RCMP or RCG.

Provinces
The twelve provinces each have their own provincial police, which, in addition to handling all provincial-level law enforcement operations and assisting local constabularies with major investigations, are responsible for protecting the judicial system, including the provision of bailiffs and security details to those in the justice system deemed at-risk, as well as serving provincial warrants and transporting prisoners and detainees between local jails, provincial prisons and other facilities. Like local law enforcement agencies, provincial police are governed by their province's respective Police Act.

Territories
Each of the six territories has its own territorial police, which like provincial police are governed by a Police Act passed in their respective territorial legislative assembly. Unlike provincial police, territorial police are also contracted by all municipalities and other local government areas in their territory to provide local policing. For example, the Turks and Caicos Territorial Police is the only police force in the Turks and Caicos Islands (other than federal police), responsible for both local and territorial law enforcement.