A handful of Canadian police officers are operating as armed federal law enforcement officers in the United States, part of a little-known experiment in cross-border policing that will be widely expanded under the new security plan announced Wednesday.
But while local and provincial police agencies are happy to see their officers operate in the States, the two federal agencies in charge of border integrity – the RCMP and the Canadian Border Security Agency – want to make sure it’s not the Americans who call all the shots in future.
As he heads off to work every morning, Detective Sergeant Mike Adamczyk of the Niagara Regional Police packs two things: his gun and his passport.
He is stationed at a border post here in New York state with one of three American-led BEST teams – short for Border Enforcement Security Task Force – that operate just across the Ontario border in Buffalo and Detroit and in Blaine, Wash., near British Columbia. A fourth outpost is scheduled to open next year in Massena, N.Y., near the Akwesasne reserve that has long been a smuggling haven.
“For criminals the border is a minor obstacle,” said the 20-year police veteran from St. Catharines, Ont., who has nabbed cocaine, meth and prescription pill smugglers on both sides of porous line that separates the countries. “So we need a seamless border for law enforcement where officers can flow through.”
Det. Sgt. Adamczyk is one of seven Canadians at the BEST unit headquartered in a non-descript building just a few steps from the Buffalo border crossing, the arch of the Peace Bridge that spans the Niagara River visible from the small windows.
Officers from Toronto, Peel, Niagara and the OPP as well as two specialists from the CBSA work alongside more than 30 Americans from eight different U.S. federal and regional law enforcement agencies.
But CBSA and RCMP members of the BEST units are restricted to their computers and phones in the office and cannot join other Canadian officers who conduct investigations, surveillance and arrests in the field.
“For us there’s a question of governance around the whole program that needs to be resolved,” said Mike Cabana, the RCMP’s Assistant Commissioner Federal and International Operations. “It’s fine to say let’s all strap on our guns and go have fun. Well, this is delicate here – there are a number of agreements that have to be implemented. Until those are in place we’re not prepared to put our members at risk and we’re not prepared to put the Canadian public at risk.”
The BEST units are run by the American Department of Homeland Security; it has agency-to-agency agreements with local and regional Canadian police forces to “cross-designate” their assigned officers on the team as U.S. federal law enforcement officers under DHS supervision.
But in the coming months of lengthy negotiations with the Americans to hammer out the details of cross-border policing – especially the presence of American officers in Canada – the RCMP and the CBSA will push for country-to-country agreements with a joint command structure.
Their model is the Shiprider program, an arrangement to patrol cross-border waterways where leadership and supervision of armed officers from both countries is shared equally between U.S. and Canadian law enforcement.
“As we roll out, we can assure Canadians that this is not some sort of rogue operation that will drag people across the border,” said RCMP Chief Superintendent Joe Oliver, the director-general in charge of border integrity.
Supt. Oliver said in their talks with the Americans, Canadian law enforcement officials will push for they will push for “key guiding principles” such as the respect for sovereignty, privacy and the different legal frameworks.
But the Americans running the BEST program say that you cannot argue with success.
