ABSTRACT
The history of policing of First Nations in Canada is one of domination and control. Since the time of first contact, First Nations communities in Canada have had colonial systems of policing and justice imposed upon them. It is only in the past 40 years that many First Nations communities have begun to take back that control, to decide how they want to provide law enforcement and crime control services to their communities through their own police services. Mohawk Chief Peacekeeper Dwayne Zacharie provides an overview of First Nations Policing and the difficulties inherent to its designation as a program, and not as an essential service. These include not only fiscal challenges, but also the need for a greater recognition of the important role that Kahnawá:ke Peacekeepers play in their community and the larger community, off reserve. Chief Zacharie underscores how First Nations Policing is community policing in the truest sense, given that most Peacekeepers live and work in their own community, know the members of the community through the relationships they develop and actively engage the community in decision-making and self-determination.
