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Long overdue...

I'm amused to read all these comments about Depot and cadets not being paid and all compared to the other police forces...

Look, it does not cost you a $$$ to go to Depot. Think of it as the University of policing!!! You don't pay for anything except your personnel expenses.

The other police forces you need to pay for your training and other expenses on base (food, room, stay over weekend, etc).

Look the RCMP are going to pay for the new cadets, it's one of Elliott's promises.

That being said, you still won't be a RM with the RCMP until you've completed Depot.

And yes, just like anythig else you need to meet a certain standard before becoming a RM so the classes are hard and demanding but that's just the way it is.

Like it was mentioned before, Rome was not built in a year so give it some time, the RCMP will get it right!!!

Theyare here to stay folks, like them or not...

Where are those Canadians who writhed in anguish over the fate of your own traitor Kadr family and are now silent on a real matter , the staffing problems with the RCMP ?

Is it true that RCMP recruits are not payed while training ?

Back-up on a violent domestic dispute or man with gun call an hour away ?

For better (or worse) your country does a pretty good job of trying to cover all the bases, healtcare, social services etc.

That one of the finest police forces in the world, the RCMP, would have to work under those conditions is dead wrong.

Murray from Windsor is absolutely correct; the RCMP tries to make money off cadets at Regina as opposed to training them.

Out of all my CJPP students at the University of Guelph, none chose the RCMP.

The pay sucks, the remote areas suck, the training is unpaid, etc.

RCMP is basically an out West and out East organization; Ontario and Quebec really have no need for the RCMP at all.

We are seeing here another of the fruits of the neo-conservative "revolution" that has decimated our public services since the 80s.

In this climate, RCMP management have intimidated into making budget reductions in the name of tax cuts.

We need to get back on track as a society and deal with homelessness, mental health, and addiction issues in the way we should.

This means recognizing these issues in medical terms rather than criminal, and taking the burden off police forces.

We need to put our police forces back where they belong--dealing with criminals, instead of minor drug offenders.

They need to upgrade their skills to do so.

And the officers on the street should be as safe as possible in pursuing their mission, no matter what--that is the bottom line.

Even it it means no tax cuts.

Instead of buying more tanks and building a bigger army, put the money into security here at home.

Initiate a more thorough and longer training period with pay, for new recruits.

Make it mandatory to have two person patrols and pay overtime for being on the job beyond the regular eight hour day.

In other words run it like the police force it is supposed to be and give these guys a break.

Instead of buying more tanks and building a bigger army, put the money into security here at home.

Initiate a more thorough and longer training period with pay, for new recruits.

Make it mandatory to have two person patrols and pay overtime for being on the job beyond the regular 8 hour day.

In other words run it like the police force it is supposed to be and give these guys a break.

Having off duty officers act as backup to calls is not an acceptable answer. These men and women should at least be afforded their time off to rest and relax without having to sit by a telephone waiting for an emergency so they can race to it. Expecting people to work around the clock is only going to burn them out and put them at more risk.

The federal government should be looking to add incentives to attract more people to apply not only to the RCMP but to Provincial and Municipal Services as well.

Six months of training with no pay and no job security is not an attractive option to people who can find jobs with a higher starting salary with little to no risks.

I don't think any of our emergency services staff get paid enough for what they have to deal with. I'm not sure there is any other solution than to add to the staffing compliment to put the numbers on the side of the police.

I don't think age makes much of a difference. A person who is 20 or 40 is not going to be able to make miracles happen based on life experience. Cops shouldn't be riding alone period.

Retired to Pension from the Force 01-09-11. Posted in numerous locations in BC where backup was sometimes in excess of an hour away with spotty radio communications.

I was lucky and built larger than the average officer and rarely called for backup. The world as a whole has changed and respect for law enforcement has sadly declined even in Canada.

Undermanned situations are common and till something is done you will rarely see paired up RCMP officers in cruisers in Canada. Most city police forces have it mandated to two per cruiser.

The public is quick to pass judgement on the actions of the police when vetted sound and video bites are presented on the evening news. There was a saying that will always stick in my mind.

Police are the first and last person you want to be confronted by. Cheers cdb

This issue is only the tip of the iceberg. There is an illness within the organization that needs to be vetted and I am not quite sure one policy directive will do it.

Staffing is obviously an issue. Not only are they unable to fill their classes at Regina with recruits, but they actually send them into the field before completing the six months of training.

That little tidbit was shared this summer by a senior RCMP officer who shall remain unamed.

Perhaps the reason they are having difficulty recruiting older and wiser recruits is that they do not pay you for the six months of training.

You are not even considered an employee during those months. So anyone with a debt (i.e. student loans)has to have someone in the wings to carry those debts and to provide some form of minimal income during those six months. (Parents, wife, husband, significant other)

Their screening process is a little curious as well. I know a recent candidate (quite healthy, bright, no criminal record) who was turned down without a face to face interview because he was deemed to have had too many jobs following university.

I suppose that a twenty year old with high school and no work record is more suitable to send to a remote detachment. Arming him and sending him out alone was just utterly irresponsible of the organization.

Wow, the RCMP have just proven their lack of competence by only now addressing a problem that they have known about for a long time.

Now that all the scandals have been exposed, in addition to the fraud of a commisioner that headed the RCMP, they might finally have enough pennies to rub together to hire more psychologically inept officers. Way to go!

Some good,thoughtfull comment here.

I too,am at a loss as to how they can make this work,while maintaining a level of protection for the community.And,as someone already pointed out,defining a dangerous situation is not an easy task.In fact,in this day and age,in an ever increasing society,even pulling someone over for a minor traffic infraction can result in a violent attack on any police officer.

I am reluctant to suggest this,because a whole lot of civil liberties activists and anti police types will scream blue murder,but I still believe ANY attack on a uniformed police officer should be punished much more severely.

I know all of our lives are valuable,but these men and women are charged with enforcing laws that make this a safer society for everyone.Most take that responsibility seriously,and as a result,are not about to walk away from a situation that leaves us vulnerable,just to avoid personal risk.

And of course,the small communities who only have one or two officers.It's not possible to expect them to be on call 24 hours a day,365 days a year.

Like others,I wonder how this can be implemented in ways that allow these men and women to have lives with their families and serve their communities.I hope the details can be worked out.It will benefit us all.

One of the biggest problem is the age of new recruits.
They are not sending well trained cops with some experience into these situations, and not just in the north.

They are send very young men and women who are doing their best but haven't had time to aquire the job smarts yet.
Not much more than kids and thats wrong!

Until this changes,nothing will help all that much.
It still comes down to poor management by the upper reaches of the RCMP.
Will they ever get it?

there are hundreds of retired police officers in Canada. Many in their early to mid 50's that have been away for policing only for a few years. These officers include Municipal/Provincial and RCMP.

Retired officers with minimal re-fresher training could be utilized on a contractual temporary basis for back-up. I am a retired Toronto officer residing in Alberta in a remote area.

I am still cognizant of the provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada as well am adept at First Aid, Use of Force Options, and Firearms. It could be a huge saving to the RCMP to draw from the vast resources of retired officers available in this country for back-up purposes, in areas where full time RCMP members are challenged due to staffing issues.

RCMP and gov't must think out side of the box and be innovative in their approach to addressing officer safety issues.

I would urge the federal Gov't/Minister of Safety and the RCMP to exlpore proposals similar to mine to ensure adequate protection to the men and women performing this often difficult and dangerous vocation.

There are many problems with the RCMP. Problems they have not wanted to face for fear of court challenges. I for one believe that when one signs on the dotted line to serve anywhere in Canada they have signed a contract.

There are to many members who are posted to the larger centres who refuse transfers. I am not talking of the large detachments in the lower main land of BC. I am speaking of large centres like Edmonton, Calgary, Regina and Winnipeg.

There are many members who have been stationed in these communities for such long periods of time that they do not want to move. Some members have been in these locations for over 20 years.

This why junior members are posted in the isolated less desirable detachments. The RCMP must be able to move their personnel when and where they are needed.

The idea that both officers in a two person detatchment must respond to calls that may become violent is ludicrous. That would put both officers on the clock 24-7-365. I don't care how much you pay them, no one will work like that. It's time to face it: If you won't send them out alone, you need more officers.

This latest all-talk solution to a bad situation shows the para-military nature of the RCMP in its worst light. The front line officers don't have the right to effectively resist impossible top-down decrees.

They'll have to break the new policy because it's unworkable and when things inevitably go sour they'll be the ones in the wrong, not their commanders.

Been there, done that. Doesn't work.

Many times it's not a dangerous call until you after you've arrived. Backup will not arrive in time when you're in the midst of fighting a bad guy. In these situations backup consists of the force continuum model (which, by the way, includes tasers.)

Ten years of review? Why not look at the Peace Officers Memorial on Parliamenet Hill - the review could cover 110 years.

Rant over.

Any peace officer, anywhere, at any time, should have a partner.

Let's end single-man and single-woman patrols once and for all.

As a son of an RCMP officer, I know first hand about the personal shortages and the overtime hours these people have to deal with.

Moreover, the RCMP cannot force members to live up north. Where are these people going to come from?

It seems like these new policies are just nice overarching statements with no legs.

Good starting move and hopefully the beginning of many more improvements, given the report that was just released.

We need to continue to re-establish faith in the men and women that wear the red serge.

To all the critics who say it's not enough...blah...blah...blah. Rome wasn't built in a day and revamping a force the size, diversity, and geographic dispersion of the RCMP will take time.

Sometimes they'll take two steps forward then one back, but these small improvements will pay off in the end with a stronger, more effective police service.

This is a band aid solution to a larger problem. The RCMP is grossly understaffed and underfunded. We have heard the results of Mr. Brown's report regarding member stress and burnout.

This back up policy is just going to make matters worse. Members will now be called upon to "wait by the phone" while they are off duty in the event a fellow member requires their assistance.

The RCMP counts on the loyalty of members to the force and to each other day in and day out. The RCMP would not be able to operate without it.

In detachment areas that do not have 24 hr coverage members are required to be on call. The meager compensation for this is is that the member gets paid one hour for every 8 hours of on call.

I certainly hope that the RCMP plans on providing better compensation now. The bottom line......the RCMP needs more members in the field.

Taxing current members with more duties and infringing on their well deserved time off is only going to make matters worse.

Its about time.

Although this back-up policy sounds great, there are simply not enough officers in the field to put it into meaningful practice.

Even the most populated detachments are painfully understaffed. The RCMP began a recruiting strategy to address the loss of the baby boomer generation far too late.

This speaks to both the, recuitment practices and the burdensome paperwork frontline officers are expected to do. For more than two decades now the RCMP have primarily relied on the prestige of the force to attract qualified candidates.

The recruitment process is longer than any other service in the country. They ask that recruits go six months of training with no pay, if they get injured during this physically demanding period they are simply sent home.

Should they fail one learning component twice, they are sent home. All other police services in Canada provide a full salary while in training in an adult learning environment, where those who are committed and competent will pass. Now which police service would you apply to?

Fronline officers are expected to complete their paperwork on files on their own time if they cannot complete during their shift. This work is not paid for. Hence the term, volunteer over-time.

To effectively practice "community policing", officers need to be in the community and not sitting in their car or the detachment desperately trying to keep up to date on an endless task list, that is essientially data entry.

Regular members, who are very well paid, are in fact being paid to do clerical work that could easily be done by a civilian. How many people know that it is not uncommon for a frontline constable to spend six to ten hours of a twelve hour shift doing paperwork?

I am not encouraged by the policy change because in practice it means little when there are not the resources to back it up.

This is so overdue but not enough. My sons family live in a small town on Vancouver Island which only has one RCMP officer.

Now, the officer not exactly the bravest you could ask for but, on the otherhand, can blame him for being overly cautious given he is alone?

The upshot of it is, when things look bad, he calls my son in the middle of the night to go take a look first and handle it if he can because my boy is an FBI (not the American kind). I want to see better than this.

I don't want dead cops and I want a dead son even less.

There are 1000's of retired police officers in Canada from Municipal/Provincial agencies as well as the RCMP.

RCMP and the gov't has to start thinking outside of the box when it comes to officer safety. Many retirees are have only been away from law enforcement for a few years and are in their early to mid 50's.

I retired from the Toronto Police Service a few years back and now reside in a remote area of Alberta. The majority of us are still congnizant of the Criminal Code of Canada provisions, self defence, first aid, firearms etc.

The savings would be substantial if the gov't and RCMP considered part time re-employment of retired officers whose abilities could be asessed during brief re-training.

While they have adopted this policy in the past they have limited the potential of the program by utilization of only former RCMP staff.

No on duty police deaths need to occur due to manpower shortages when there are viable alternatives to address critical staffing issues.

Policing by its virtue can be a dangerous vocation due to the volatility of human nature.

Violence and death to police officers frequently happens with little or no warning and often without provocation.

Sometimes just wearing an official uniform is sufficient to incite contempt by some segments of our society.

Steps need to be taken now to mitigate the veritible dangers associated with remote policing.

There are alternatives to back-up and staffing issues. Viable options need to be studied and adopted before another senseless police death occurs.

I think anywhere that the RCMP is understaffed there should be a complete ban on the sale of alcohol.

I think some of these remote communities might enjoy an alcohol-free time and I am sure the rest of us might like to know that there are fewer drunken yahoos with guns and automobiles roaming around: sure takes a lot more stupidity to hurt someone when one is high on orange juice.

How many times will a victim be created because of the extra delay in responding to a call? I fear we will see ugly headlines about serious incidents that may have been averted but for the delay in police response due to this required rendezvous.

This doesn't mean that officers should therefore respond to every call that puts life and limb at serious risk, but it does suggest that more funds are needed and perhaps more specialized training too.

And of course let's see harsher sentencing for those who do not respect the force.

I agree entirely with Mike of BC on this. Usually in the north an off-duty officer does assist in difficult instances.

The only difference is the backup officer might actually get paid now for coming in while off shift, although I'll be surprised if they are offered overtime pay (time and a half) at least.

Frankly I'm amazed senior RCMP officers have let this issue slide for at least a decade. It certainly says to me the budget is the primary concern at headquarters.

Johnny Truant asks "how effective two burned out, overworked and underfunded going to be"?

I'd say about twice as effective as one under the same circumstances.

But I agree with the issue of burnout etc., and do question why it didn't seem to win out over what certainly appears to have been financial concerns.

My near perfect hindsight suggest to me more thought ought to be put into major undertakings like the one that led to the creation of all those small isolated communities in the far north.

The social and economic issues facing some of the small Inuit communities are at least partly to blame for dangers RCMP can be confronted with.

But no one seems to want to discuss that piece of social engineering that has gone terribly wrong.

That's because it's a political, not a police issue.

The hard part is going to be defining "A Dangerous Call" even a routine traffic stop can go either way real quick wouthout much warning.

The intent sounds good but there's a lot of fairly dark grey area that has to be worked out yet.

This move comes on the heels of the decision to take one more tool of defence in the taser out of our officers' hands.

The next question is how effective are two burned out, overworked and under funded officers going to be?

To address the deeper problems faced by our officers, the RCMP needs to emancipate from the federal government and thus keep it's bureaucracy in check.

Recruiting and retention methods require vast alterations as well. The RCMP is one of our proudest entities and are instrumental to our local security, we need make bolder moves to back up the troops at home.

The announcement of the RCMP's back up policy is only a re-emphasis of current policy. It does not address the problem of under staffing.

There are numerous postings around the country including many here in Southern BC where a single member is posted to a community with back up over an hour away.

These officers are repeatedly put in positions where to ensure public safety they sacrifice personal safety and can not wait an hour for back up.