Law enforcement in the Canadian Republic

In the Canadian Republic, informally Canada, a sovereign state in North America organised as a federal parliamentary republic, law enforcement is exercised at three levels: local, provincial/territorial and federal. Each province has its own unique provincial police, which is headed by a chief constable who is answerable to the province's attorney general via the Provincial Police and Crime Commissioner, a civilian employee of the provincial Ministry of Justice which is headed by the province's attorney general. The main executive division of the provincial police and criminal inspectorate is headed by the agency's deputy chief constable who, in addition to undertaking various administrative and operational responsibilities of the Chief Constable on his/her behalf in order to make more available the Chief Constable for political campaigns and fundraisers and other public events, is responsible for law enforcement and public security at the provincial level and the security of all institutions and senior officials of the provincial government (except the provincial judicial system, which is administered and provided security by the provincial sheriff service, the provincial law enforcement agency responsible for managing jails, transporting detainees and provincial convicts, and administering and providing security at provincial courthouses and other judicial institutions and providing personal protection to both judicial employees and those in the provincial judicial system; the head of a sheriff service is called the Sheriff, while employees of all subordinate ranks are generically referred to as deputies). Most provincial sheriff services are independent agencies, whose sheriff answers to the province's solicitor general, the primary deputy of the province's attorney general, who is also typically responsible for supervising the provincial correctional service and overseeing routine criminal prosecutions of the provincial Crown prosecution service; three provinces, however, handle all provincial sheriff services with a division/directorate of the respective provincial police, namely the provinces of Ontario, Québec and Prince Edward Island. The provincial police are answerable to their province's executive government via the province's attorney general; the Attorney General appoints a Provincial Police and Crime Commissioner, to whom the provincial police force's chief constable is answerable. In addition to the main provincial and criminal investigative division, each provincial police force also consists of several regionalised divisions, each consisting of a number of detachments contracted to provide local policing services to single-tier and upper-tier municipalities in the province. Each detachment of a particular municipality is typically led by a ranking detective chief inspector or superintendent, who is simultaneously answerable to his/her constabulary superior (typically the superintendent or chief superintendent of the regional division) and the respective municipality's mayor or local council. Ottawa, Canada's capital city and a unique federal district comprised of one single-tier municipality, is policed at the local (non-federal) level by the Metropolitan Police, a law enforcement agency answerable to the Ottawa Department of Justice, an executive department of the Metropolitan Executive Council, the cabinet of the Mayor of Ottawa. Administration of Ottawa jails, bailiff services and the security of non-federal courts are the responsibilities of the Metropolitan Sheriff Service, while non-federal prisons and other long-term correctional institutions as well as the parole and probation system are administered by the Metropolitan Corrrectional Service. The Attorney General of Ottawa oversees the Metropolitan Police and the Metropolitan Crown Prosecution Service, while the Solicitor General of Ottawa is delegated legitimisation of most routine criminal prosecutions of the Metropolitan Crown Prosecutor and especially his assistant prosecutors, as well as supervision of the Metropolitan Sheriff Service and Metropolitan Correctional Service.

In each of Canada's five territories, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the country's largest law enforcement agency, contracts with the devolved territorial government to provide law enforcement and public security services at the territorial level, including the protection of territorial government institutions and senior officials. Each territorial division of the RCMP has, in addition to its main territorial command, a command of detachments which contracts with the territories' municipalities to provide local policing services. Outside of the five territories, the RCMP is Canada's main federal law enforcement agency, responsible for policing operations at the federal level, including within the five territories, the difference being that, within the five territories, the RCMP has policing jurisdiction at all three levels of government, whereas in the 13 provinces, it has only federal jurisdiction. Nonetheless, certain RCMP detachments and regiments are invited by non-federal police to assist with security and public order at major political or cultural events, especially by the Ottawa Metropolitan Police, the Ontario Provincial Police and la Sûreté du Québec. The RCMP is an agency of Public Security Canada (formally the Department of Public Security). Alongside the RCMP, there exist smaller federal law enforcement agencies: the Canada Sheriff Service, officially the Federal Sheriff Service of the Canadian Republic, the main law enforcement agency of the federal Department of Justice, is the main sheriff service at the federal level of government, responsible for supporting the operations and ensuring the security of the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal, administering federal jails and detention institutions and transportating federal convicts and detainees, as well as leading federal special investigations, national manhunts, and combatting domestic terrorism. Canada Corrections, which operates all federal prisons and long-term institutions as well as the federal parole and probation system, is also an agency of the federal Department of Justice, which is headed by the Attorney General of Canada, a senior official of the Canadian federal government. Other federal law enforcement agencies include the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which handles security at the international border and the processing of all persons and products entering Canada, although the separate Department of Customs and Immigration handles the actual administration of visa, permanent residence and citizenship applications as well as related paperwork, documentation and information, as well as the ultimate decision regarding applications. There is also the Royal Canadian Gendarmerie (RCG), an active service branch of the Canadian Forces, the civilian corps of which are responsible for border patrol (while the CBSA controls border crossings) and civilian policing in unincorporated rural areas. The RCG also has a provost corps responsible for patrolling military bases and policing active duty and reservist members of the Canadian Forces.