La police au Québec, 1760-1878 : des modèles impériaux dans une colonie nord-américaine

The author examines the transition in police structures and practices within Quebec that resulted with the transfer of the colony from French to British rule. Quebec's first British governor, James Murray, introduced into the colony in 1764 a variant of the decentralized English police model, based on citizen involvement (the parish constable, with bailiffs and sub-bailiffs elected in each parish by the predominantly Canadien population). Murray's successor, Guy Carleton, re-established a centrally-controlled militia and, at least in the countryside, gave militia captains many of the policing responsibilities they had previously held under French rule. The author points out that this kind of fundamental transformation in the organization of the police continued steadily over the next century. Among the changes, were the establishment of a citizen police in the colony's two main towns in 1787, the establishment of police offices and salaried magistrates in 1810, the addition of night guards in 1818, the replacement of all these measures in 1838 by a centralized police force established across Quebec and under the direct control of the colonial administration, the abolition of this police force in 1843 and its replacement by a municipal police force in the two main towns, followed by a another failed attempt to create a centralized provincial police force in 1870-1878.

Polices d'Empires : XVIIIe-XIXe siècles

Rennes, France

Presses universitaires de Renne

2012

95-113

fr

978-2-7535-2074-5