RCMP Watch

Rob Shaw, Times Colonist (Victoria)

Vancouver Island police departments are facing the worst staffing crunch in memory, in part, they say, because of the competitive job market and a sharp decline in the number of people applying to become police officers.

“We are moving towards a crisis in policing for recruiting,” said Victoria police Insp. Del Manak, who runs the human resources department.

“If we don’t make significant changes into how we conduct business and go out and promote policing as a viable career option, we are going to be in trouble.”

Victoria police need to hire six to eight new officers every year for the next three years to replace what Manak calls a significant number of retiring and departing officers. The department, which has 220 officers out of a potential 222 on staff, hired nine new members last year and 21 in 2005. The situation is even more dire for the Vancouver police, which needs to hire 100 new officers just to maintain current staffing levels.

The problem is that the labour pool is shrinking, and prospective candidates are being lured into high-paying jobs in areas such as the booming construction industry, say police.

Victoria police received 163 resumés last year, a dramatic drop from 621 in 2003.

“The pool of candidates that we choose from is shrinking and that’s causing me great concern,” Manak said.

“Our standard is so high that many people don’t make it through. We may have to spend more money to recruit the right candidates.”

Manak said the department won’t lower its standards — if it can’t fill all its vacancies with qualified candidates, it will run at less than full strength.

Saanich police numbers are similar, said Insp. Rob McColl, who runs the staff-development division and whose 147-officer department will need to replace six officers retiring in 2008.

The staffing crunch has forced police departments to adjust the long-held view that the best officers seek out the force, and not the other way around. It’s an especially strong mindset in B.C., where recruiters admit the beautiful weather and active West Coast lifestyle have long been the lure.

“The cost of living has gone up,” said Manak. “So now we aren’t getting the people moving to Victoria. That’s also something we are having to fight with.”

The starting annual wage for a Victoria officer is $44,804, rising to $68,929 after five years of service and $79,268 after 20 years. An RCMP officer earns $72,135 after three years.

“Probably the days are gone when we can sit back and do nothing and expect [recruitment] to carry on,” said McColl. “The ‘if you build it they will come’ might not always be the case anymore.”

It doesn’t help that it takes up to 12 months to go through background interviews, psychological assessments and a polygraph test. It also costs an applicant about $10,000 to complete mandatory police courses through the Justice Institute of B.C. — a cost that used to be paid by the provincial government.

The RCMP, which polices most of rural Canada and Vancouver Island, sends officers to train at its depot in Regina. Because it is an accredited post-secondary institution, recruits can get student loans.

But the Mounties are also feeling the pressure. Some officers are retiring, while others are leaving to join municipal police forces because of the RCMP’s renewed focus on shuffling its members to different parts of the country every few years. The Central Saanich police — a department of 27 people — hired four RCMP officers in the past year.

The RCMP wants to hire 2,000 officers nationally every year, said Const. Darren Lagan, an RCMP recruiting officer for the Island.

“It’s the single-largest sustained recruiting drive we’ve had,” he said. “But we have not lowered our standards and I think that is unanimous as well with the other organizations.”

Central Saanich deputy chief Clayton Pecknold said his department is small enough to mostly avoid the recruiting crunch, and normally hires veteran officers looking for a less-hectic workload. The situation is similar in Oak Bay, where chief Ron Gaudet said he doesn’t hire new recruits, only officers who want to leave other departments.

Victoria police used a billboard this summer near the Tsawwassen ferry terminal to lure potential recruits on summer vacation, put ads on the big screen at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre and strung a banner over Douglas Street to encourage locals to apply.

The department has also advertised in police and teacher magazines, attended job fairs for post-secondary students and has even started to go to high schools.

Raising the pay to lure more recruits doesn’t work, said Manak, because other police forces raise their pay as well, which makes it hard to compete. “One thing that we push is ‘West Coast lifestyle.’ For people coming from Toronto … or Alberta, we provide something different.”

A national advertising program through the Police Sector Council is also in the works.