RCMP Watch

Rob Shaw Victoria, B.C. (Times Colonist) - Vancouver Island’s top Mountie is asking the province for 27 new officers, staff he says are needed to give RCMP in remote detachments — such as the north Island and Gulf Islands — proper backup on dangerous calls.
“What it boils down to is additional resources,” said Chief Supt. [...]

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Colin Kenny, Member of Parliament (Windsor Star) - Canadians love to talk about their multicultural mosaic and how Canada’s diversity - which should be a centrifugal force pulling us apart - actually helps keep us together.
That may be wishful thinking, or not. What is certainly true is that every nation needs icons that supercede diversity [...]

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Jeff Nagel (BC Local News) - Instead of working to solve each individual crime, police must focus more on rehabilitating repeat criminals.
That’s the crux of the new crime reduction strategy being pioneered at select cities across the province.
And B.C.’s top RCMP officer says the newest statistics have him convinced the strategic shift in thinking is [...]

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Rob Shaw (Victoria Times Colonist) -Every few days, a weather-beaten RCMP officer hops in a boat and takes off for Kyuquot, a remote village on Vancouver Island’s rugged northwest coast.
The constable travels and arrives alone. One community. One Mountie. No backup amid the many kilometres of desolate wilderness and ocean.
And that’s pretty much the [...]

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Toronto, ON (National Post) - The former commissioner of the RCMP has lashed out at his old bosses, blaming a lack of government leadership for what he says is a growing gap between the demands on police and the resources allotted to them.
Giuliano Zaccardelli, who resigned as top Mountie a year ago, told the Senate [...]

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(CBC) - The RCMP’s provincial sexual predator team is deeply underfunded and is being shut down, according to an internal police memo, but B.C.’s solicitor general denies that will happen.
The RCMP memo, dated Jan. 31 and released Thursday by Mike Farnworth, public safety critic with the B.C. New Democratic Party, says the Integrated Sexual Predator [...]

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(CBC News) - Saskatchewan’s rural politicians say some of their communities are operating with a serious shortage of RCMP officers — and the RCMP agrees.
RCMP Insp. Bob Mills admits that there are too few RCMP members in rural detachments.
The recommended strength of RCMP in rural parts of the province is about 997 people, but there [...]

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Christopher Heffernan (Lloydminster Meridian Booster) - Businesses in Western Canada have long had to deal with growing labour shortages caused by the region’s red-hot economic growth, but now it seems even Canada’s national police force is having a tough time attracting qualified candidates.
Businesses in Western Canada have long had to deal with growing labour shortages [...]

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Alan Cochran (Moncton Times & Transcript) - Ten years after the City of Moncton traded its municipal police force for RCMP contract service, it is paying about twice as much for that service. And while nobody is complaining about the quality of service, municipal officials can’t help but wonder how they will continue to budget [...]

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(CBC News) -People living in rural Saskatchewan communities are worried about a new RCMP backup policy that does not allow officers to respond to violent or potentially violent situations on their own.
Under a new policy approved last week, officers must now go to potentially dangerous situations in pairs.
But residents in the southwestern part of the [...]

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