Lose respect and you lose the streets. That’s the hard lesson American police learned as their cities burned in the 1960s. Today, Canadian police are scrambling to preserve public order from a new “perfect storm” looming over the horizon and under the political radar. Their vaunted thin blue line of front-line officers is greyed, frayed, and stretched to the breaking point. Plagued by failed leadership and too few recruits, our police are frantically digging in behind the scenes against the converging triple threats poised to engulf them: shifting demographics, increasingly complex laws, and unrealistic expectations. The threat to officers and public safety has never been greater.

DOUG CLARK is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in publications such as The Globe and Mail, Saturday Night, Maclean’s and The Toronto Star. He is the author of Unkindest Cut: The Torso Murder of Selina Shen; Billion $$$ High, an examination of the illegal drug trade in North America; and Heart to Heart, an insider’s look at heart surgery for patients and their families. Doug Clark lives in Ottawa.

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