RCMP Fact Sheets

An Organization of Excellence

QUICK FACTS • For 2006, the RCMP’s strategic priorities are: organized crime; terrorism; youth; economic integrity; and serving Aboriginal communities — all under the umbrella of integrated policing. • The RCMP is one of six key areas in the portfolio of Canada’s Public Safety Canada. • The RCMP’s National Police Services manages a repository of 3.5 million criminal records and receives approximately 540,000 criminal transactions per year. INTEGRATED POLICING AT ALL LEVELS Local/Municipal • 200 Municipal agreements • 79 First Nations CTAs • 172 Communities Provincial/Territorial • 8 provinces • 3 territories • Federal leadership on national priorities • International leadership in policing

Overview
Building on its 130-year legacy, the RCMP has set its sights on being recognized around the world as an organization of excellence. With strategy as a key priority throughout the organization, the RCMP has aligned its operations and management in support of its key priorities and remains on the leading edge of policing. Its mandate is to raise the barometer of public safety to maintain its mandate of safe homes and safe communities for Canadians.

Setting the Bar
In 2000, Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli set the goal of making the RCMP a strategically-focused organization of excellence. Four ingredients for success were identified: intelligence, values, accountability and bridge-building.

In pursuit of this goal, a more strategic approach has been applied to the RCMP’s structure and activities on both the operational and management sides of the organization.

Excellence in Operations
From its roots as the North-West Mounted Police, the RCMP has always been on the leading edge of policing — whether it was around the Klondike Gold Rush, the World Wars or peacekeeping. To reflect the dynamic nature of the world in the 21st century, the organization has adopted a highly-flexible strategic framework. Strategic priorities provide focus for operational activities across all RCMP business lines.

As a federal police force, the RCMP’s scope of operations includes: organized crime, terrorism and specific crimes related to the illicit drug trade; economic crimes; and offences that threaten the integrity of Canada’s national borders. The Force also protects VIPs, including the Prime Minister and foreign dignitaries, and provides the Government of Canada with a full range of physical and computer-based security services.

National Police Services, managed by the RCMP on behalf of all Canadian law enforcement organizations, offers valuable resources to members of Canada's 500-plus law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. These resources include national repositories as well as specialized services such as forensic sciences analyses, criminal intelligence, police learning and departmental security.

The NPS operated national databases include fingerprints, criminal records, Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), Canadian Integrated Ballistics Identification Network (CIBIC) and the Automated Criminal Intelligence Information System.

In addition to its federal, municipal, and international operations, the RCMP provides “contract” policing services in all provinces/territories in Canada, with the exception of Ontario and Quebec. It is contract policing that is at the heart of the RCMP mandate, with contract policing agreements covering 75 per cent of the geography of Canada. Contract policing is the way most RCMP members cut their teeth and acquire the ‘hands on’ policing and investigative skills that will serve them throughout their careers.

Excellence in Management
In response to the Commissioner’s vision of excellence, the organization’s senior management team was restructured, allowing its members to focus on medium and long-term strategic goals. Next, a strategic framework was adopted, which set out priorities and objectives, as well as management strategies. To support the process of change, a new emphasis on management excellence was introduced. This new approach also provides vital feedback on the RCMP’s performance, allowing senior management to measure progress and make adjustments, if necessary.

An integrated planning cycle was introduced to align strategic, operational and financial planning cycles, and to align business planning with strategic planning and program delivery. This results in budgets that are more clearly based on what is actually required. The new cycle also ties the RCMP effectively into the federal government’s planning and budgeting cycle, enabling the RCMP to connect better to the policy and financial cycles of its provincial and municipal partners. An annual environmental scan monitors political, economic, technological and social changes to feed information into the integrated planning mechanism.

In reorganizing for excellence, several management strategies were identified, including sound stewardship; HR renewal; horizontal management; interoperability; international cooperation; and performance management.