Arrest Warrants in Canada: What Police Diploma Students Need to Know

The Criminal Code of Canada lays out the proper procedures regarding criminal offenses in the country. The code contains 28 parts, one of which details the extensive specifics of arrest warrants and helps to ensure that people who are suspected of committing a crime can be legally taken in for questioning. During your police foundations program at Anderson College, you’ll complete courses in everything from The Criminal Code, Federal and Provincial Statutes, to Police Procedures in which you’ll begin to learn about how arrest warrants operate and how police employ them to keep our communities safe.

The following is a brief introduction on how arrest warrants operate in Canada, and what students in police foundations need to know.

Police Foundations Students Learn How to Obtain Arrest Warrants

When it is thought that a certain individual has participated in a crime, an affidavit—a written statement that is given under oath—is submitted to a judge containing specific information that links a certain suspect with the crime that he or she is suspected of committing. A vague description will not be enough to obtain an arrest warrant; the description must be particular. For instance, the affidavit cannot just give a general description of someone who resembles the person who is being arrested, it must instead provide detailed information about how exactly that person is connected to the crime, such as eye-witness accounts, physical evidence, or camera recordings. This information is meant to establish what is legally called probable cause; a case based on evidence for the high probability that the suspect did indeed commit the crime.

Police Diploma Holders Know Warrants Are Often Only Valid In Certain Places

Usually, arrest warrants are only valid within the province where the judge signs them into effect. But other times, if a crime is more serious and involves violence, Canada-wide warrants can be issued. With a Canada-wide warrant, a suspected criminal can be arrested by any police force member in the country.

If you graduate from a police diploma program and decide to make your career in the field of police work, you will learn that if you stop someone who has an arrest warrant in another province and you feel it is serious enough to take the suspect in, you sometimes can. After that, you will need to contact the police in the issuing province and proceed from there.

Police Foundations Programs Graduates May Use Arrest Warrants To Prevent Travel

Graduates of a police foundations program may go on to a rewarding career as a customs or immigration officer. As you complete your studies, you’ll learn that when there is a warrant out for a traveler’s arrest, it can often prevent them from travelling outside of the country the arrest warrant is issued in. Airports security staff and border security staff make sure to check police databases when citizens move through borders or attempt to board an airplane and will flag those who have outstanding warrants. In fact, in late 2015 all border services officers got access to the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), which allowed them screen all travellers—this led to 1,800 arrests in the first month alone.

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