Safety in Hamilton Ontario

The Mega City-State of Hamilton Ontario relies on a variety of civilian agencies, not just the Hamilton Ontario Militia, for its public safety and security needs. These are scattered across the federal government ministries and provincial government departments, often with tentacles at the municipal level (although not with official municipal government participation).

Police

The Mega City-State Police is an arms-length agency of the federal Justice Ministry whose sworn peace officers are routinely armed on patrol. They enforce federal criminal law and municipal ordnances or bylaws. Government policy is generally pro-law and order.

When the government is confronted with issues, it normally adopts options which aid police effectiveness while remaining consistent with a high degree of civil rights and public safety. For instance, trespassers often find themselves impaled by crossbow bolts because while guns are banned, self-defence is not. Thankfully, the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare also keep crime down.

The police force is organised into seven divisions, counterclockwise from the northwest:

• Hill and Dale Division (Flamborough and Dundas Provinces) - HQ Dundas Town
• Great Plains Division (Ancaster and Glanbrook Provinces) - HQ Mount Hope
• Hamilton Mountain Division (Hamilton Province above the Escarpment) - HQ Upper Hamilton City
• Stoney Creek Division (Stoney Creek Province) - HQ Stoney Creek City
• Lower Hamilton East Division (East Hamilton and Port Hamilton) - HQ East Hamilton
• Lower Hamilton West Division (Hamilton City and Westdale Town) - HQ Hamilton City
• Central Division (pan-national responsibilities for organised crime, youth, arson, homicide and anti-terrorism) - HQ Hamilton City.

The force is headed by Chief assisted by a Deputy Chief, and the divisions are headed by Staff Superintendents assisted by Superintendents. Sub-Divisions are headed by Staff Inspectors, with two or more Inspectors acting as watch commanders. Staff Sergeants and Sergeants are the shift supervisors of beat and patrol Constables.

Corrections

Once the police have apprehended criminal suspects and the courts have convicted them, criminals are held over to the the care of the federal corrections system. The government operates all the prisons, jails, half-way houses and parole programmes in the country as a consequence of being responsible for all criminal law.

Prison industries, except as part of the rehabillitation process and for the upkeep of the penal institutions themselves, are not permitted. Likewise, to ensure truly responsible government, prisons themselves are always operated directly by the federal government and not by some arms-length, private or non-profit organisation.

Fire

Each province maintains its own Fire Department to prevent fires from happening and to put them out once they occur. It seconds arson and fire specialists to the police to investigate suspicious fires which might have a criminal aspect. The paramedics of the Emergency Medical Service form a branch of the department as well.

Interprovincial coordination ensures that the equipment, organisation and procedures are sufficiently common to all departments to enable interoperability. Thus, fire departments can jointly operate against large blazes which overwhelm provincial resources, large scale public disasters and even on overseas aid operations.

While there are a number of small variations in each department, the officers all have the name "Chief" in their title ranking in the following order: Provincial Chief, District Chief, Station Chief, Unit Chief. The majority of the work is actually carried out by Firefighters, Paramedics and Ambulance Attendants, the lead hands of which have the prefix "Senior."

Emergency Measures Force

This federal civilian agency operates in close cooperation with the Hamilton Ontario Militia, with whom it shares the federal Defence Minister as its boss. EMF's members are unarmed and rely on police and militia for protection.

It is designed to cope with natural disasters, power outages, wilderness search-and-rescue, massive accidents, event first aid and other wide scale situations. Once the domestic threats have been neutralised, it is available for foreign aid missions, perhaps coordinated by the International Red Cross Organization.

Public health

These provincial departments are mainly concerned with dental hygiene, physical fitness, infant health, maternal support and other highly cost effective yet unglamourous health measures. However, they also have units charged with preventing, mitigating and overcoming disease outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics.

They can issue public health orders enforceable by law -- and the police if need be. Orders can quarantine individuals, stipulate medical handling, regulate waste management, and prohibit operation of businesses and institutions for as long as the health emergency is in effect.