“What If I Call Them the Smurfs?” Comparing Marginalized People Who Use Drugs’ Experiences and Interactions with Auxiliary and Sworn Police Officers

Police civilianization represents one of the most significant developments in contemporary policing. However, little is known about how marginalized communities, who are routinely subjected to civilian police work, perceive, and experience these actors. Drawing upon interviews with 66 unhoused people who use drugs in Winnipeg (Canada), we compare participants’ perceptions of and experiences with the Winnipeg Police Services’ (WPS) Auxiliary Force Cadets—civilian police with limited legal authorities—and sworn WPS officers. Participants reflected on Cadets’ inferior legal authority to explain their invasive and aggressive policing style, whereas they perceived sworn officers as more passive. They thus modified their behaviours in response to their perceptions of and interactions with these different policing actors. We demonstrate how marginalized persons distinguish between varied policing actors, engaging in what we coin police actor demarcation, and analyze why this distinction matters with respect to how they navigate and interact with policing bodies.