Canadian Police and Legitimization Of Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs)

This paper focuses on the increasing adoption and deployment of Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs), one of a range of ‘less-than-lethal’ force options, by Canadian police. The paper explicates the legitimization of CEDs as a function of the intrinsically complex interaction of organizational dynamics, such as growing professionalization and concomitant credentialism of police practice and the agency of CED manufacturers. Four landmarks in the policing field generated by CEDs legitimization are enunciated as gatekeeping and structuring ideational processes. The paper concludes with a trifecta of resultant effects of the symbolic institutional value of CEDs in the policing field in Canada.