Police officers are known to serve and protect the general public. They are the ones who enforce the rules in society. It is defined in the book "The Structure of Police Work. In Canadian Police Work" that policing is "activities of any individual or organization acting legally on behalf of the public or private organizations or persons to maintain security or social order while empower by either public or private contract, regulations or policies, written or verbal" (Griffiths, 2013, p. 31). There are various roles of authority, discretion and power within police work. Lastly, there are a number of trends that are impacting police services in Canada. These trends are the rise of policing costs, increasing workloads, continuing evolution of community policing, more specialized police units, expansion of private security services and the changing nature of crime.
The RCMP and RNC have the role of authority in Canada. It is mentioned in the book that police officers may be able to "deprive citizens of their freedom and application of physical force" (Griffiths, 2013, p. 33). Police officers have the right to arrest an individual. The police work has three important components; one is to control crime, next is to order maintenance and lastly to provide a service to general public. The RCMP and RNC are responsible to keep peace and order in society. They provide a service to the public by following up on questions and concerns from individuals. These two teams also provide a service such as investigating and helping the general public in locating missing persons and identifying people of interest. In policing, police officers use discretion. It is written in the book as, "the freedom to choose between different options when confronted with the need to make a decision" (Griffiths, 2013, p. 34). Police officers have to use proper judgment and discretion when arresting an individual.
