Canadian Police Association

CPA

Full name	Canadian Police Association
Members	54,000
Key people	Tom Stamatakis, President
Office location	Ottawa, Ontario
Country	Canada
Website	www.cpa-acp.ca

The Canadian Police Association (CPA) is an organization of Canadian police officers.

In 2003, the original "Canadian Police Association" was merged with the National Association of Professional Police to form the Canadian Professional Police Association. At their annual convention in Victoria, British Columbia in August 2006, Canadian Professional Police Association members agreed to revert the name back to the Canadian Police Association because it was more recognizable and user friendly.

The Canadian Police Association represents 54,000 front-line police personnel across Canada. Membership includes police personnel serving in 170 police services across Canada, from small towns to those working in large municipal and provincial police forces, as well as members of the RCMP, railway police, and first nations police personnel.

The role of the Canadian Police Association is to:

• lobby governments on police-related legislative and policy issues;

• provide a collective support network for Member Associations to successfully improve representation and conditions for their own members in collective bargaining, education and training, equipment, health and safety, and protecting members’ rights;

• advocate for adequate and equitable resources for policing;

• identify key national issues which impact on Member Associations and facilitate the resolution of these issues;

• react and respond, upon request, to local policing issues that may have national ramifications; and

• liaise with the international policing bodies on issues affecting Canadian police personnel.

Police Officers' Bill of Rights

The Canadian Police Association is promoting an initiative for police officers' rights. The association argues that the nature of police work requires members of police services to accept risks in order to preserve public safety, and that police officers are often called upon to intervene in situations when the safety of others as well as their own may be at risk. The Canadian Police Association states that police officers accept this risk, with the expectation that they will be properly supported by their employers, lawmakers and the justice system when they are the subject of malicious attacks, including malicious allegations with respect to conduct.

In Canada the statutory authority regarding policing is governed by federal law, provincial law and often municipal by-laws. The laws, policies and practices concerning the support and treatment afforded to police officers often vary by jurisdiction.

The Canadian Police Association is therefore promoting a "Police Officers’ Bill of Rights". The association seeks to have this Bill of Rights adopted by federal, provincial and municipal governments, as a basic and consistent set of principles governing the standards applied to their members.

President

• Tom Stmatakis (current)

External links

• Official CPA site