Police organisation
Ontario Provincial Police
The provincial police service of Ontario, a division of the province’s Ministry of the Solicitor General.
At a glance
- Official name
- Ontario Provincial Police (OPP)
- System
- Canada
- Level of government
- Provincial
- Kind of body
- Provincial police force
- Status
- Currently operating
- Official website
- https://www.opp.ca/ — confirmed against the organisation’s own pages on 17 September 2026.
- Facts last checked against sources
- 17 September 2026
What it is
The OPP states its mission as serving the province by protecting its citizens, upholding the law and preserving public safety, and describes itself as a division of the Ministry of the Solicitor General. Canada’s policing is layered in a way that a single national force does not capture: the RCMP polices federally and under contract in much of the country, while Ontario and Quebec each maintain their own provincial service. The OPP is the Ontario half of that arrangement, and its existence is why "the Canadian police" is not a meaningful phrase.
What it covers
The province of Ontario.
Broad responsibilities
- Provincial policing across Ontario
- Criminal investigation and organised crime
- Traffic safety and highway policing
- Emergency call handling through provincial communications centres
Who it answers to
A division of the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General. The Commissioner is stated to be the highest-ranking member of the force.
Elsewhere on this site
- Who polices what — how Canada is structured, against other systems
Other organisations to compare
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police — Canada
- Sûreté du Québec — Canada
Where this connects
Roles: Patrol officer.
Institutions: Provincial police.
Sources
Who we are — Ontario Provincial Police
Ontario Provincial Police · Institutional (self-description) · link verified 2026-09-17
SCOPE: the Ontario Provincial Police only. The force's own 'Who we are' page, read directly. Supports the official name, the OPP's position as a division of Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General, its stated mission of serving the province by protecting its citizens, upholding the law and preserving public safety, and its four commands plus a Corporate Services Division. The page makes comparative size claims about other police services; those are NOT published, because a ranking is not a fact this platform publishes.