Building on a Legacy

COMMISSIONER'S MESSAGE

Two years ago, I released Build on the Legacy, my vision for the future of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). My senior management team and I thus set in motion a number of initiatives designed to refocus the RCMP as an organization of excellence; excellence in operations, management, core values and indeed in every effort we undertake serving and protecting the people of Canada.

This vision is predicated on the rich history of the RCMP... starting from the epic beginnings of the Great March West in 1873. Over the past 130 years, we have gained a world-wide reputation as a leading-edge policing organization, in large part because of our ability to adapt to meet the changing needs of our times.

This ability was put to the test in the shadow of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. In the challenging, uncertain times that followed – and that continue to this day – the RCMP refocused its strategic priorities to reflect the new security environment, to ensure safe homes and safe communities for Canadians.

More than any recent event, 9/11 also demonstrated the value of partnerships and collaboration with our domestic and international colleagues in the policing, security, intelligence and law enforcement communities. We have realized great successes through more and better integration with our colleagues... a philosophy that now underlies all that we do. The vision of “integrated policing” builds on our rich history of partnerships with the communities we serve, and will lead us into a future where the law enforcement community’s view of globalization means that geographic boundaries are often nothing more than lines on a map.

I am extremely proud of the work we have done and the progress we have made since I became Commissioner in September 2000 – and indeed in the past 130 years as Canada’s national police. The men and women who serve with the RCMP have served the organization and Canadians well. Now, as we move forward in the 21st century, I am confident that we will continue to build on our legacy and strive for excellence in all that we do to protect the safety and security of our citizens, and our country.

Giuliano Zaccardelli
Commissioner

BUILDING ON A LEGACY

How do you improve an institution with a proud history of achievement? In 2000, the RCMP addressed that question by introducing a significant new approach to the way the organization functions. Strategy became a key priority – influencing all parts of the organization – as did the Commissioner’s vision to make the RCMP known around the world as an organization of excellence, driving the principles of integrated policing.

The overarching strategic goal is to work toward safe homes and safe communities for Canadians, and this document highlights our direction and achievements.

Change Management

Three areas were highlighted for immediate change.

• In September 2000, the senior management team was restructured, allowing its members to focus on medium- and long-term strategic issues.
• Three months later, a strategic framework was approved, setting out priorities and objectives, as well as management strategies.
• To support the process of change and provide feedback on improvement
  mechanism, a new focus on performance management was introduced.

The Financial Story

These changes represent part of an ongoing effort by the organization to demonstrate management excellence and create a better awareness of the critical role played by the RCMP. Improvements in the way the RCMP is managed have built trust, credibility, and confidence in our organization. As a result, funding for the RCMP has increased to $2.64 billion over a six-year period beginning in fiscal 1998-99. Increased funding has been primarily alloted to enhance the integrity of existing programs and to solidify the resource base for our contract policing services.

The shift in the way the RCMP functions also reflects the need to keep pace with trends, such as the rapid technological development, shifting political realities, increased globalization, growing concerns for personal security, and changing values related to traditional institutions.

To reflect the dynamic nature of the world in the 21st century, the RCMP’s strategic framework — which provides a five year horizon — was designed to be highly flexible, able to be adjusted to reflect the findings of annual environmental scans and analysis. Focusing the way the RCMP responds to its changing environment are four behavioural pillars that reflect the traditional strengths of the organization: intelligence; values; bridge-building; and accountability.

EXCELLENCE IN ACTION 2002-03

OPERATIONAL

Throughout the past year, the RCMP has demonstrated its commitment to excellence by initiating and following through on operational programs that address each of the five strategic priorities, under a broader philosophy of integrated policing and law enforcement.

Organized crime – Fuelled by the passage of Bill C-24 in 2001, which made

changes to the Criminal Code to strengthen the ability of law enforcement officers and prosecutors to fight organized crime, the RCMP stepped up its initiatives to counter organized criminal activities by Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs), Asian and East European gangs, and other traditional organized crime groups.

Collaboration has been key to a number of highly successful operations aimed at shutting down OMGs in various regions of the country. In June 2002, Operation Amigos culminated in the arrest of 54 members and associates of the Bandidos gang in Quebec, including the club’s national leader and two leaders in Montreal. Overall, 2001 and 2002 brought more arrests of OMG members than any comparable 18-month period, and effectively shut down entire chapters of the Bandidos and Hells Angels in Canada.

Terrorism – The events of 9/11 galvanized police and security services throughout the world. The RCMP’s response – Project Shock – strengthened the RCMP’s alignment/collaboration with a broad array of government departments and agencies. This work was enhanced through important investments by the Government of Canada.

The Government of Canada’s Federal Budget of December 2001 funded a number of national security initiatives. The RCMP received $576 million over six years.

• $59 million was allocated immediately in the wake of 9/11 to deal with threats to national security.
• Funding was earmarked for 17 specific national security programs in an effort to meet the following objectives:
  • further enhance integrated investigative/enforcement activities;
  • improve technology;
  • increase protective services;
  • enhance information sharing with other government departments as well as international and domestic law enforcement agencies.

IBETs - total funds received: $130 million

These teams will enhance the collection, analysis and sharing of information and investigative and enforcement capacity along the Canada/U.S. border. The $130 million was allocated from the overall funding ($576 million) the RCMP received under the December 2001 federal budget.

Technology Improvements - total funds received: $100.5 million
Funds were allocated to purchase equipment and enhance analytical, intelligence sharing and operational technical support to provide law enforcement with the ability to better detect, prevent and eliminate threats to national security.

Protective Services - total funds received: $168 million
A significant portion of the funds was dedicated to support investigative priorities, including the protection of designated persons and sites in Canada.

Information Sharing - total funds received: $34.5 million
Funds were dedicated to the creation of the Financial Intelligence Branch to better track, detect and dismantle the financing capabilities of terrorist groups and organized crime.

In December 2001, Canada and the U.S. signed the Smart Border Declaration, a 30-point plan aimed at fighting terrorism.

The Smart Border Action Plan also committed the RCMP and partners from both countries to increased collaboration through the annual Cross-Border Crime Forum, which has been in place since 1997.

Another initiative was the creation of four Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSETs), which are made up of more than 200 investigative and analytical personnel in major cities and focus on terrorist threats. Since 1998, the RCMP has provided a Web-based forum –
www. deal.org – for youth to communicate, research and express ideas. The program encourages youth to make healthy life decisions and become more involved in their communities, and it allows young people from across Canada and around the world to connect with each other. Working in close cooperation with a number of government and private-sector organizations, www.deal.org harnesses the energy and talent of young people and helps demonstrate that youth are not only the leaders of tomorrow, but of today, as well.

Youth – With an eye toward the future, the RCMP’s strategic approach to youth is to educate and prevent their involvement in crime as victims or perpetrators. The RCMP is working with community partners to implement the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which came into force in April 2003.

In addition, the RCMP supports numerous community-based programs, and participates with various partners to run innovative programs that protect children. In partnership with Scouts Canada, the RCMP developed Be Bright-Think Right, a national interactive safety awareness program for school-aged children. Working with Industry Canada and other organizations, the RCMP supports the Canadian Strategy to Promote Safe, Wise and Responsible Internet Use.

Early in 2003, the RCMP worked with various international law enforcement agencies to arrest Canadians suspected of purchasing child pornography via the Internet.

The Commissioner has created a Youth Advisory Committee to continue to explore ways for RCMP officers to connect with youth across Canada. Building resiliency puts children and youth at less risk of becoming involved in crime. Crime prevention through social development is the true vision of the youth priority. This requires looking at the source of problems involving youth and working collectively with our partners to address the social causes of these problems.

International policing – The RCMP is proud of its international peacekeeping activities and of its Liaison Officers who represent the RCMP on foreign soil and are responsible for keeping Canadian law enforcement personnel in touch with events and investigators overseas.

Liaison
Liaison officers handle everything from global investigations, to lost passports, to assisting with crises such as embassy takeovers and hostage negotiations. RCMP liaison officers are posted around the world.

Peacekeeping
RCMP members have participated in more than 25 peacekeeping missions during the past 13 years. In early 2003, the West African country of Guinea became the site of the latest international policing project. Members will train local police to provide security inside six United Nations refugee camps. Elsewhere, RCMP members provide services in Kosovo, Bosnia, East Timor and Sierra Leone. Missions involve police training, monitoring and executive police duties.

Protective
In June 2002, Canada hosted the leaders of the G8 countries for their annual summit. Working in partnership with several other police services and a number of federal government departments, the RCMP provided personnel and expertise to manage security at the G8 Summit site in Kananaskis, Alberta, and at the scenes of anti-globalization protests in Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa.

As part of its mandate to protect visiting Internationally Protected Persons, in the summer and fall of 2002, RCMP personnel provided protection to the Pope during his visit to Toronto and to the Queen for her Jubilee Tour of Canada.

Serving Canada’s Aboriginal peoples –

The RCMP has developed a unique and important relationship with Aboriginal peoples living in Canada since the earliest days of the North-West Mounted Police in the 1870s. The RCMP has built solid bridges and developed more than 190 policing agreements with First Nations. The RCMP participates in a significant way, and influences northern policy, in three territories, and continues to be an instrumental player in the evolution of Aboriginal communities.

The RCMP’s renewed strategic focus on Aboriginal communities is part of the federal government’s commitment to strengthen its relationship with Aboriginal people, and is guided by the results of extensive consultations held by the National Aboriginal Policing Review. Those consultations, and numerous others conducted by the Commissioner’s National Aboriginal Advisory Committee and the Com-manding Officer’s Aboriginal Advisory Committees in each division, have identified several priorities. These include the need for police officers who are culturally sensitive, more training and education in Aboriginal policing, and improved communications.

ORGANIZATIONAL

Modern Comptrollership
The RCMP continues to be guided by principles outlined in the federal government’s Modern Comptrollership initiative – results-oriented, values-based decision-making, increased transparency and responsiveness, and responsible spending. Beginning in 2002, an Office of Comptrollership Modernization became a permanent part of the organization. This office oversees the RCMP’s management improvement plan which resulted from the force-wide capacity check in 2000-2001. The plan is a key driver of the changes that will make the RCMP an organization of excellence.

Planning
As part of the initiative to strengthen the strategic management of the RCMP and meet its commitment to become an organization of excellence, a new integrated planning cycle was introduced in 2001. Bringing together a number of planning activities – including strategic, operational and financial – the new integrated planning cycle creates a closer link between business planning, strategic planning and program delivery. The cycle links resources to current needs and future expectations, and ties the RCMP effectively into the federal government’s planning and budgeting cycle.

Feeding information into the integrated planning cycle is the RCMP’s environmental scan, which systematically monitors political, economic, technological and social changes in both the internal and external environments. Data collected by the scan is analyzed to assess conditions, major threats, challenges and opportunities that are either present or anticipated. This process enables the change and adaptation required to operate effectively in a continually evolving environment.

Performance Management
The organization has also adopted and implemented a “Balanced Scorecard” performance management tool to ensure a disciplined and consistent focus on the strategic agenda throughout the organization. This approach promotes management by performance and creates a culture of transparency in planning, monitoring and evaluation.

Oversight
An impartial and independent government institution, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, continues to play a key role in the relationship between the RCMP and the Canadian public. The elimination of the Commission’s backlog of cases in 2001 cleared the way for it to complete new requests for review in a timely manner. The Commission has also assessed and refined its procedures, including the introduction of Alternate Dispute Resolution.

Sustainable Development
The RCMP continues to build its Environment Management System (EMS) and provide stewardship in this area.

Voluntary Sector
With over 75,000 volunteers engaged in a range of activities (e.g. victims services, search and rescue, Auxiliary Constables, etc.) across the country, the RCMP is a leader in its partnership with citizens in community well-being. Given our critical relationship with volunteers, we continue to build on our active role in the Government of Canada’s Voluntary Sector Initiatives.

A Strategic Vision for the Future
The transition to a police service with a clear strategy focus at all levels, provides the basis for considerable progress towards the Commissioner's goal of organization excellence. As illustrated in the previous sections, both the operational and organizational activities of the RCMP are increasingly linked directly to the strategic priorities, strengthened by the integrated planning process and practices adopted in 2001.

Strategic Framework

The RCMP is a dynamic organization. The senior management team constantly scans the environment, assesses the priorities, and adjusts them when necessary. The strategic priorities for 2003-04 are:

• Organized crime;
• Terrorism;
• Youth;
• International policing (including peacekeeping); and
• Serving Canada's Aboriginal peoples.

The achievement of these priorities is sustained by a vigorous emphasis on the five core functions of policing, highlighted in the framework as the strategic focus — prevention and education, intelligence, investigations, enforcement and protection — and on the key strategic objectives in both the operational and corporate business lines.

The police and law enforcement environment continues to evolve at an incredible pace. Canadians are placing a higher priority on community safety, and personal and national security. The RCMP is increasingly asked to contribute operationally — as well as in the development of public policy — playing a significant role in helping the federal government assure citizens that all necessary steps are being taken to safeguard homes and communities, today and for the generations to come.

Working with partners in law enforcement and all levels of government, both domestic and international, the RCMP will actively pursue the Commissioner's vision of integrated policing as a means to leverage the resources of police and law enforcement communities and to bring common strategic approaches and collaborative efforts to bear on criminal activities.

Building on a solid behavioural model — of intelligence, values, bridge-building and accountability — the RCMP will continue to evolve as an organization that is highly flexible and responsive to a Canadian and global environment. With 130 years of leading-edge police as our heritage, the RCMP will endure by continuing the legacy as one of the world's foremost law enforcement agencies.

As we look toward the future, a number of challenges become evident. In the immediate term, we need to:

• disrupt, dismantle and prevent organized crime;
• prevent terrorist groups from operating in Canada and abroad;
• address the root causes of youth crime and the effects of victimization;
• provide effective support to international operations and initiatives, to contribute to common law enforcement goals; and
• contribute to safer and healthier Aboriginal communities.

And, we will do this in a multi-level partnership by:

• building common strategic agendas;
• sharing priorities with other police services;
• sharing intelligence;
• making systems interoperable; and
• delivering seamless services to Canadians.

The vision of integrated policing brings with it serious challenges — issues such as:

• a balance between obtaining the information required to keep Canada safe from terrorism and respecting the privacy rights of Canadians in a post 9/11 world.
• negotiating appropriate and relevant resourcing — both the funds and the functions — to support our contract-level and national/international-level policing.
• developing new strategies to attract the best and brightest employees to the RCMP — people who reflect Canada's rapidly changing demographics and bring much needed skills and expertise.

These are just a few issues on the horizon for the RCMP. Our overarching challenge is to build an organization of excellence, that lives our values and strives for innovative solutions to the safety and security challenges of a country and a society in the 21st century.