Recruitment problems affect RCMP deployment

By Cheryl Wierda - Kelowna Capital News - February 29, 2008

Cancelled classes at the RCMP training facility and higher than normal attrition in the training program may translate to new police positions planned for this year in Kelowna not being filled until sometime in 2009. The RCMP recently set a goal of annually hiring 2,000 officers nation-wide, but cadet spaces at the training facility in Saskatchewan aren’t being filled. Kelowna RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon said this week that three planned training groups, with 32 spaces each, have had to be cancelled in Regina, and other classes have gone ahead at less than full capacity. As well, he noted that he’d heard there has been “higher than normal attrition” at the training facility, called Depot. The reasons classes are being cancelled and running at less than capacity include the fact the RCMP—and all police organizations— cannot get enough people to apply and the security measures that must be undertaken before a person is accepted for training to become an RCMP officer. McKinnon said that he expects to be short this summer on new recruits, but doesn’t know how exactly the less than hoped for turnout of new officers will affect this Okanagan city. However, he believed it may mean that some of the officers approved for hire in council’s preliminary budget for 2008 won’t hit the streets until sometime next year. McKinnon said the eight police officer positions earmarked for 2008 are expected to take effect May 1, and the RCMP has one year to fill the positions. He was hoping to have half of the positions filled by July 1, as the policing workload increases when tourists flock to the city in summer, but he is now “concerned” that will not happen. The expected lag time in bringing the new officers to Kelowna also had McKinnon saying that new positions like the organized crime coordinator and the domestic violence coordinator will likely not be filled “as quick as I hoped” and bolstering the ranks of the target team will take longer.The target team, which focuses on chronic offenders, was announced in 2006, and after budget deliberations for 2007, was slated to get underway last fall. However, the two-member target team just began its duties earlier this month. Despite the anticipated delays in recruits being posted to Kelowna, McKinnon noted the RCMP last month billed the city for the highest ever number of police officers—130. The concern over the less than expected turnout of recruits comes the same week as the federal finance minister announced more funding for police over the next five years.

British Columbia’s share of the $400 million for policing is expected to be $53 million, with Solicitor General John Les quoted as saying the province is still evaluating how best to use the funds. However, the funding is being viewed as doing little to address the staffing challenges for police.“They offer 2,500 new officers on the street but we need 5,000 in the next three to five years just to replenish the retirements let alone deal with increasing transnational, organized and technology-enabled crime,” former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli told a Senate committee on national security and defence on Monday.He said police struggle to keep pace with crime as investigations become increasingly complex, and said there has been a 10 per cent reduction in real capacity to do police work over the last decade.