Canada, U.S. working on cross-border police chases

Canada, U.S. working on cross-border police chases

The U.S. and Canada are preparing to launch a pilot project that would authorize American and Canadian law enforcement officers to cross the international land border in pursuit of suspected criminals or terrorists.

The plan to create teams of "crossdesignated officers" comes ahead of a broader Canada-U.S. border security and trade strategy expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama.

"The creation of 'NextGen' teams of cross-designated officers would allow us to more effectively identify, assess, and interdict persons and organizations involved in transnational crime," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech to a border conference earlier this week in Lake Placid, N.Y.

"They would also allow us to conserve precious resources, to avoid duplicative efforts, and to leverage tools and expertise."


Read more: www.edmontonjournal.com...

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Some time back Canada and the US signed a border agreement that allows the US Coast Guard and the Canadian Mounted Police to be cross trained and commisioned as law enforcement officers with jurisdiction in both countries, regardless of their nationaliaty. Thats been going on for some time now (mid 2000's). Once they cross into Canadian waters or canadians cross into US, they become part of the RCMP or the US Coast Guard.

(Shiprider program - www.heritage.org...)


On the heels of that (which was designated to just water borders) came joint centers between local law enforcement. Detroit MI Police and Windsor Ontario Police have joint investigation teams that can cross the border each way and allows for greater cooperation to take down organized crime / people who like to jump across the border knowing they are out of reach. The judges in Ontario and Michigan have upheld actions by the joint teams on both sides of the border (collection of evidence / interrogations etc and comply with both countries laws and established legal roles.
(US-Canada joint task force - Detroit / Windsor - www.windsorstar.com...)


An incident highlighted the problems when a felony assault and pursuit started in Niagra Falls USA. That pursuit found its way to the US Canadian border, where 4 of the pursuing US cruisers continued the pursuit into Canada, where a canadian civilian was struck and killed by the fleeing suspect. When the suspect fled on foot a Canadian Police officer engaged in a foot pursuit, when the driver fleeing started shooting at him.

(Article on the cross border pursuit - www.tribemagazine.com...)


Since then Canada and the US have streamined their criminal laws to mimic each other, and immigration laws are now being reviewed and discussed between the 2 countries to make them uniform.


An agreement was signed last year allowing the Canadian and US militaries the ability to be activated when a disaster occurs along with the ability to freely cross the border depending on type of disaster and affected infrastructure.


The latest advancement occured on Sept 16th 2011. As an extension of the shiprider program, the US and Canada are now putting in place laws / regulations that allow Canadian and American law enforcement officers engaged in a pursuit to cross the border, where they transition over to Canadian law enforcement if the US enters, or US law enforcement if Canadian police enter.

(New cross border training - www.leaderpost.com...)


There have been discussions with Canada and the US on these programs and possibly extending them to the US Southern border with Mexico.


Anyways, just figured you guys might find it interesting. From the political viewpoint its looks like the US and Canada are going forward with a proposal made a long time ago about essentially removing the internal border crossings / checks. It included streamlining of the laws to make them identical as well as added protections for US citizens in trouble in Canada and vice versa with Canadian citizens in the US. In addition to the border security changes apparently both countries now place their own food inspectors into each others plants to ensure food laws are being upheld.


Should we make a wager that we will see essntially the merging of the US and Canada in the future?

It could go either way so I posted it in here insted fo the conspiracy forums.

Thoughts? REaction from our Canadian neighbors?

I am Canadian , and we see the the idiosyncrasy of what the US is trying to do .
We will not stand for it . A global governance by the US does not offer any help. they are cash hungry and we are the obvious country that does not promote war on terrorism that does not apply to us.
The Harpers are US inclined , but the day WILL come. We are a free peole still fighting the influence from the UK.
The garbage will be gotten rid of. This agenda has no hold on the rest of the world and Harper is going to get a surprise eradication.
We are one and do not NEED Harper to eradicate us.

reply to post by ionsoul


Thank you for the Canadian perspective on this.

Question for you - Out of curiosity why are these programs the fault of solely the US? It takes two to tango does it not?

The plan doesen't bother me, rather like having the US as my neighbor, and joint border will go along way with issues on terrorism, yes I know alot of Canadians will scoff at this, but yes we are gateway, Harper is Canadian, period. He may believe in joint ventures with the US but make no mistake, he is not adverse to saying No when it comes to Canadian interests, and that being the soveriegnty of our nation.

Sorry, not interested in Mexico.