RCMP NEED OUR HELP
’m not exactly the esteemed Christie Blatchford or even a novice police beat reporter. And given my lone ride-along that I voluntarily ended before the bars closed on Saturday, as well as a single interview with another member for an hour, large gaps are inevitable in what follows. But the takeaway from my short time with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is that our most iconic institution and its personnel are facing serious challenges from every possible direction.
I promised to make no notes nor any recordings during this escapade. Given the media bias surrounding the RCMP, from the exaggerated reports on the Cypress Hills’ massacre of my ancestors that facilitated their hasty inception as “police” while wearing the red serge of the British Empire, to the recent ramblings of a local editor about how carbines should be left locked up at the detachment, earning their trust was no small task.
It is my solemn intention to keep it. With these caveats stated, the Mounties’
issues mirror those of most organizations - the loss of institutional knowledge as senior members retire, a recruiting deficit, stretched resources due to budget cuts, as well as the growing disconnect between the thin blue line of members on the road and the swelling ranks of desk-bound management. Add to this that frontline police are falling behind in compensation and the unionization push by uniformed members makes sense.
Of course, as the token right wing pundit, it is incumbent upon me to write on issues of policing and state control. To be clear, we do not live in a police state, whatever conspiracists might say; we do however live in a policed state, where files documenting all of our interactions with the RCMP are available at the touch of a button. No clear alternative presents itself to me, especially given our society’s demand that the police anticipate every kind of criminal activity.
As stated in previous columns, the way to remain under the radar of any surveillance based organization is to either not do crimes or to not get caught doing them. During the ride along, only one person out of the several stopped and questioned had no previous contact with police. Keeping such close tabs on citizens does raise my civil liberty hackles, but any reader of this paper can vouch that the same characters feature over and over again in the court docket.
I was given the chance to experience the adrenaline that ensues from a high-speed rendezvous when another Mountie calls for back-up, lights and siren blaring. That’s the RCMP’s greatest asset: the fraternity born out of everyone completing the same training at depot in Regina. Thus, members are loathe to do anything that might betray the sacred bond between them, which explains why a culture of silence manifests when the police are being investigated.
Contrary to popular caricatures, a
Mountie’s life isn’t all Timmies and driving as if Road Warrior was an instructional video. Cases are worked on a priority basis, with topics spanning the most mundane to the incredibly tragic: scanning for a miscreant who was testing car doors, or following up on an alleged assault, or even delivering the age-old line “...I regret to inform you...” late at night at a citizen’s front door, the RCMP are in constant motion while on watch.
More Mounties are needed here and across the country. But with the total commitment required by our federal police force, new members are slow to join, as the worklife balance has not evolved to 21st century expectations, from stability to salary. This also causes stress for RCMP with young families, as securing daycare or settling into a new town adds to their already difficult vocation. Perhaps childminding and preschool facilities should be offered at 455 Victoria.
George Orwell noted, “we sleep soundly in our beds because of those who stand guard over us.”
Until we create an alternative, that duty falls to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.