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 several counties and their constituent municipalities, although some (such as the Montreal Police Area) only cover two counties (Montreal County, which consists of 16 municipalities, and Laval County, which consists of 5 municipalities). By contrast, the Lower Mainland Police Area which is under the jurisdiction of the Lower Mainland Constabulary (LMC), consists of the seven counties which together make up the Metro Vancouver/Fraser Valley region, making it the largest police area in Canada by physical size and the third largest by population.