This article was first published in The Sheaf, the print newspaper of The University of Saskatchewan. It was an article inside Volume 91, Issue 20.
On Monday, January 10, as the first of its new lecture series for the new millennium, the College of Law welcomed Greg McCullagh, a former Prince Albert Police Chief, to deliver a lecture entitled, “Municipal Policing in Saskatchewan: History, Structure, and Relations with the Legal Profession.”
McCullagh, who served as Chief from 1990 to 1998, has spent over 30 years in the police profession and offered a wealth of information to those in attendance. He spoke of the different interconnections that exist between law enforcement officers and lawyers, noting that lawyers not only prosecute and defend, they also serve as intricate parts in police commissions, boards, and inquests alike. The critical connection between the two professions, said McCullagh, is the Police Act, which played an essential part in the radical changes to municipal policing since its revision in 1973. The revisions created a standardized set of policing rules established for all of Saskatchewan.
McCullagh is very impressed by the ideals this province has set for itself, 1nciuding the Saskatchewan Police College, which has made policing more unified than most provinces in Canada. The former chief said that the uniformity of policing in Saskatchewan is crucial when provincial investigations need to be carried out.
In his hour-long lecture McCullagh provided listeners with an extensive history of what are now major policing forces of today. Using examples. like the Temperance Movement, and the pressure put on the government by such groups as the Social and Moral Reform Council, McCullagh was able to explain how policing gained more money, equipment, and public recognition, and was able to provide citizens with better protection. It was these conditions, which also lead to various political foundations of policing with governing boards and committees, on which many
lawyers are needed to serve upon.
The idea that lawyers were needed for more than prosecution and defense was a key point in McCullagh ‘s lecture, as he, outlined the many various positions that people in the legal profession held in order to keep policing a more stable profession. His outlining of the external reviews of
various police personnel, which needed to be carried out by lawyers separate from the poiice force, backed up his lecture.
By highlighting the relations that existed between police officers and lawyers on such things as provincial statutes, bylaws, civil matters and inquests, McCullagh was able to give a more detailed look into the world of policing and showed that lawyers play an important role in many police processes.
