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Winnipeg Police Service's entry to newsletter subscription service 'complicates police legitimacy': prof

The Winnipeg Police Service has officially joined Substack, a subscription-based online platform for publishing newsletters. That raises a question, says sociology professor Christopher Schneider: What function does Substack serve for the WPS other than to provide an editorialized spin on events?

Substack lets police service offer its own spin on events, says Brandon University's Christopher Schneider

Christopher Schneider · for CBC Opinion ·
Winnipeg police officers stand between the anti-pandemic restrictions convoy protest and counter-protesters on Feb. 12, 2022. Police faced criticism for their handling of the protest, which continued for nearly three weeks. The decision by the Winnipeg Police Service to post its own version of events on Substack reduces trust in the police, says Prof. Christopher Schneider. (CBC)

This column is an opinion by Christopher Schneider, a sociology professor at Brandon University and author of Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of New Media. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

On Tuesday, the Winnipeg Police Service officially joined Substack, an American online publishing platform. The WPS appears to be among the first major police services in Canada to join Substack, and one of just a few other law enforcement agencies officially represented on the platform.  

The WPS, like most law enforcement agencies, already has all the tools it needs to get their official messages out to the public, from social media platforms to official websites that also operate as publishing platforms for police-issued statements and news releases. 

Police agencies that are on Substack use the platform to issue official news releases. The Yalobusha County Sheriff's Department in Mississippi is one example. The department, which services a population of approximately 13,000 people, issues its crime-related releases on its Substack page.

This raises a question: What function does Substack serve for the WPS other than to provide an editorialized spin on events?

A man with a big beard smiles.
The Winnipeg Police Service's new Substack raises concerns, says Brandon University sociology professor Christopher Schneider. 'Unlike journalists and media pundits, the police are not and should not be in the business of editorializing their law enforcement work,' he says. (Submitted by Chris Schneider)

Substack operates in much the same way as blogs do, with one important caveat — it is an email subscription-based service. Readers can subscribe for free or by paying a subscription fee.

Substack was launched in 2017 and has since become increasingly popular with independent writers and journalists seeking editorial independence and personal control over their own written work. 

Consider former New York Times op-ed editor and journalist Bari Weiss.

Weiss noted in her resignation letter to the Times that she left the newspaper because it had "lost sight" of its principles. 

One estimate suggests that her popular Substack, "Common Sense with Bari Weiss," now generates an astounding yearly revenue of $800,000.

Impersonal authority is the foundation and hallmark of police legitimacy.- Chris Schneider

"This got me thinking," writes WPS Chief Danny Smyth on "Tried and True," the name of the new WPS Substack, "Why can't we use Substack in the same way to tell our story?"

Our story?

Unlike journalists and media pundits, the police are not and should not be in the business of editorializing their law enforcement work and attempts to do so will only complicate police legitimacy. The legitimacy of police wholly relies on public judgments and support of police actions. 

Chief Danny Smyth of the Winnipeg Police Service is shown in a March 2021 file photo. He says he believes police need to tell their own story. (Trevor Brine/CBC)

"Our story" that Smyth lays claim to is not a story of the WPS. Rather, it is the story of the people of Winnipeg. And the people of Winnipeg should not have to "subscribe" to their story. Nor does Smyth's perspective on it paint the authoritative version for Winnipeggers. 

The public story as of late has been rife with criticisms of police.

Even before the pandemic or the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, a January 2020 national poll reported that fewer than 50 per cent of Manitobans who took part had confidence in police.

Embracing public criticism and being reflective about it can lead to new insights and changes, which can also help re-establish public confidence and trust in police.

Rather than lean into public criticisms, Smyth appears to have done just the opposite, seemingly taking the criticisms personally.

I think this suggests that perhaps some of the public criticisms are warranted. Instead of pledging to do better, Smyth has chosen a relatively untravelled path in law enforcement by opining on such matters as "ideological" media outlets and their "harshness about reporting on police," on the WPS "Tried and True" Substack. 

The consequences of this decision with respect to police authority in Winnipeg remain to be seen.  

The research on policing is very clear. Impersonal authority is the foundation and hallmark of police legitimacy.

Editorializing on Substack personalizes police authority and so undermines the very efforts to build the trust and confidence in policing that Winnipeg's police chief so desperately wants.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christopher Schneider

Christopher J. Schneider is professor of sociology at Brandon University and author of Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of New Media.

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