Ontario Provincial Police

Previously, the OPP was divided into seventeen different regions. In 1995, OPP operations were amalgamated into six regions, with five providing general policing services, and one providing traffic policing services in the Greater Toronto Area following recommendations by the Ipperwash Inquiry.[17] OPP police stations are known as "detachments".

The Legislative Security Service consists of special constables who provide security services to the Legislative Precinct (Legislature Building and Whitney Block) and report to the sergeant-at-arms.[18] Officer uniforms consist of white shirt, black tactical vest, radio, black pants with yellow stripe and peaked cap.

An OPP officer on his motorcycle

The majority of policing services are provided by uniformed front-line police constables. All sworn members of the OPP, as per the Police Services Act, must attend the Ontario Police College in Aylmer, Ontario, for thirteen weeks to obtain their Basic Constable Training Diploma. The OPP also mandates additional training before and after attendance at the Ontario Police College, resulting in the longest training period among Ontario police services. After this, probationary police constables are assigned to a detachment within the OPP's six regions with a coach officer for a year of field training. At the end of probation, a decision is made regarding retention.

The OPP conducts training at the Provincial Police Academy in Orillia, Ontario. The current academy was opened in 1998 on the site of the former Huronia Regional Centre. Previously, training was conducted at the OPP Training and Development Centre in Brampton, Ontario, from 1981 to 1998. Uniquely, the OPP also has the mandate to train First Nations constables from OPP administered first nations police services. Members of these services undergo the same training as OPP constables, save a different uniform. Academy attendance is not open to the general public.

Uniformed non-commissioned OPP officers wear dark blue uniforms with gold lettering and shoulder flashes. Commissioned officers wear a different shoulder flash, and white shirts. Since 1985, wide, light blue stripes down the side of issued trousers have been standard, and forage caps are banded with a hat band of the same colour. Officers wear duty belts with issued equipment, and have the option of wearing either an internal ballistic vest, or an external tactical vest with MOLLE webbing and large placards indicating "police" on their chest and back. The OPP was the first major police service in Canada to issue tourniquets and trauma equipment to each officer. Previously, officer were issued light blue shirts instead of their current navy blue shirts. These shirts are now reserved for use by special constables, security officers, and auxiliary police constables. From 1997 to 2008, the official headdress of the OPP was the stetson, though commissioned ranks were still issued the forage cap. Starting in 2008, the OPP returned to the peaked cap for all officers. Officers in a specialized role will be issued different equipment, such as baseball caps. Officers serving with a specialty tactical unit may also be issued cargo pants without the distinctive stripe, a utility top, and subdued placards for their external tactical vest. Officers serving with the Tactics and Rescue Unit are issued olive green uniforms.

Rank structure within the OPP is paramilitary or quasi-military in nature, with several "non-commissioned" ranks leading to the "officer" ranks. Detective ranks fall laterally with the uniform ranks and is not a promotion above. Police constables in the OPP are uniquely known as "provincial constables".

Following the disbanding of World War II auxiliary forces, growing Cold War tension and fear of a nuclear attack led to the belief that police services should "recruit and train volunteers to augment their strength in times of emergency". As a result, in 1954, the Provincial Civil Defence Auxiliary was created, but the need to more closely associate the auxiliary with the OPP soon became apparent.

On 14 January 1960, the Provincial Civil Defence Organization was dissolved. A new oversight body known as the Emergency Measures Organization—Ontario (EMO) came into being. Each department of the government became responsible for its own operational planning. The organization of auxiliary police forces became the responsibility of all interested municipal police forces, as well as the OPP.

In April 1960, a new organization more closely affiliated with the OPP came into being. The Ontario Auxiliary Police were organized in 12 of the 17 OPP districts and by the end of the year, 376 volunteers had signed up to be equipped and trained by experienced OPP personnel. Two OPP inspectors were assigned to work with Emergency Measures Ontario as liaison officers for the volunteers. This close connection continues today with the OPP auxiliary playing a critical role in emergency and disaster planning and occurrences. By 1961 there were 466 auxiliary volunteers who accompanied regular provincials on traffic and law enforcement patrols and during the year logged more than twenty-six thousand hours of volunteer duty.[19]

In March 1969, a meeting took place at the Ontario Securities Commission in Toronto, Ontario, to incorporate a separate but included group of the Ontario Provincial Police Association. Membership is open to retired and currently serving members but also to civilian and auxiliary members.[20]

Previous colour-scheme used until 2007

Current OPP cruiser with black and white graphics

OPP K9 Unit

The OPP has approximately 1,200 cruisers in service across the province. Officers use all-wheel drive versions of the Ford Taurus, Ford Explorer, Dodge Charger and Chevrolet Tahoe for front line patrol. For specialized roles, a variety of vehicles are used, such as the Chevrolet Suburban, Ford F250 Super Duty, and the Cambli International Thunder 1 armoured rescue vehicles used by the Tactics and Rescue Unit, as well as an International-based truck used by the Highway Safety Division and Mobile Support Units. Previously, models of the Ford Crown Victoria and Chevrolet Impala were used.

Historically, from 1941 to 1989, the OPP livery was black and white. In 1989, in response to manufacturers no longer offering dual tone vehicles, the OPP switched to an all-white livery with blue and gold striping.[21] Vehicles of this era were equipped with Federal Signal's Vector light bars with integrated traffic advisers. In 2007, the OPP announced that it would return to a black and white colour scheme. The colour scheme is accomplished with the use of vinyl wraps during in-house vehicle outfitting. The change was implemented starting in March 2007 and was completed in 2009. Vehicles of this era had detachment markings on the rear quarter panel and used Federal Signal Arjent S2 light bars. Current vehicles have eschewed the detachment markings and are equipped with Whelen Legacy light bars. Unmarked vehicles are generally white, black, grey or dark blue. All marked cruisers are equipped with pushbars, also generally have black steel rims, and spotlights mounted on the driver side. License plates on the cruisers are generally the ABCD-012 format, with only few, if any, using the newly issued dual-hue blue license plates. Many OPP cruiser license plates often begin with the following letters (Note that they generally have numbers from 000–999 and do not have a specific set):

BAWC, BCJM, BKDF, BKWL, BPLA, BRYH, BMEH, BRFV, BRVS, BSVR, BVPN, BWTL, BXTA, BXTY, BYZH, BZJW, BZTR, CAKR, CALR, CAVR, CAPY, CAZN, CBSW, CBSX, CHFY, CHVR, CKKY, CKNR, CKNY, CMBY

• Eurocopter EC135
• Pilatus PC12NG
• Cessna 206 Turbo

• Kanter Marine "Chris D. Lewis" 38-foot police boat

• Draganflyer X6 UAV[22]
• FIU-301 UAS

The Beatles's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band contains cover art with Paul McCartney wearing an OPP patch on his fictional uniform (more easily seen in the gatefold picture). In January 2016 the origins of the patch was confirmed as a gift from an OPP corporal on 28 September 1964, at Malton Airport as the Beatles were on their way to Montreal.[23]

On the online social networking website Habbo Hotel Canada, OPP officers and spokespersons visit the online application to talk to teens on board the web site's "Infobus". During the weekly sessions, users of the Habbo service are able to ask the officers and spokespersons questions, primarily regarding online safety.

Starting in 2016, the Discovery Channel reality TV series Heavy Rescue: 401 began following members of the OPP and local heavy tow operators, profiling their efforts during events and routine operations on Highway 401, a highway that crosses southern Ontario.

In the Canadian horror film Pontypool, the OPP is called into the eponymous town to control a zombie outbreak, ultimately resulting in a massacre. The response of the government to this outbreak draws many parallels to Canadian separatist movements. The film's lead character, Grant Mazzy, vocally denounces the OPP's actions on the radio.

In the television series Cardinal, the OPP is fictionalized as the Ontario Police Department (OPD), with a shoulder patch similar to that of the actual OPP except that the top element is replaced by three stylized maple leaves on a branch. OPP cruisers in the series are marked similar to actual cruisers, however the Queen's crown is replaced with a stylized beaver, and the vehicles are marked "O.P.D." instead of "O.P.P."

The Caledonia Land Dispute began in 2006 when members of the Six Nations of the Grand River began an occupation of land that they believed belonged to them, to bring light to their land claims, and to the plight of aboriginal land claims across Canada. The land at the centre of the dispute was owned by a corporation planning to build a subdivision known as the Douglas Creek Estates. The Ontario Provincial Police were called in to keep the peace. Tensions led to violence and over the span of several years, the Ontario Provincial Police were criticized for perceived inaction against the native protesters by local residents. In 2011, a class-action lawsuit against the government of Ontario was settled.

The Ipperwash Provincial Park is a former provincial park in Lambton County, Ontario. On 4 September 1995, natives occupied the park to bring attention to decades-old land claims that had not been recognized, resulting in the Ipperwash Crisis. The park had been expropriated from the Stoney Point Ojibway during World War II. The protest increased in tensions, resulting in the shooting and subsequent death of a protestor, Anthony O'Brien "Dudley" George, by Acting Sergeant Ken Deane of the Tactics and Rescue Unit. Deane was subsequently convicted of criminal negligence causing death. In 2003, an inquiry called the Ipperwash Inquiry, into the events at Ipperwash was convened, and concluded in 2007. The OPP now uses a variety of different methods in resolving conflicts at major events, most notably by the use of the Provincial Liaison Teams (PLT), formerly known as the Major Event Liaison Team (MELT)[24]

In 1993 an Ontario Divisional Court case, John Doe v. Ontario (Information and Privacy Commissioner), Judge Matlow of the Ontario Divisional Court, suspected that four officers of the Toronto Police Service engaged in a fabrication of evidence and harassment of an accused party. Judge Matlow under the Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), sought access to the report of the Ontario Provincial Police exonerating the officers, but was denied access to it by the OPP. Access was later granted by the FIPPA commissioner, but a judicial review of the FIPPA commissioner's order to release the report resulted in publication of the OPP report being banned.[25]

The OPPA was established in 1954 to represent sworn and civilian members of the OPP, as well as OPP retirees.[26] In March 2015, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced they were investigating fraud allegations against three top executives of the OPPA.[27]