'It’s in shambles': RCMP 'architects of own demise,' says criminologist after complaints in N.B. and N.S.

After a week of criticism and anger at the Mass Casualty Commission in Nova Scotia, and outcry in a rural area of New Brunswick, there are questions about the RCMP’s role in community policing.

The force’s response to the worst mass shooting in Canadian history remains at the centre of the commission’s work, this week revealing alleged interference and missteps during and after Nova Scotia’s mass shooting in April 2020.

Also this week, a public meeting in McAdam, N.B., saw a number of citizens sharing their experiences with crime and a lack of response from the RCMP. The meeting was heated at times, with some residents yelling “citizens are getting hurt because you guys aren’t doing your job.”

“It’s all well and fine for the RCMP to say, ‘We’re understaffed, we need more personnel,’ but the RCMP have been the architects of their own demise, in terms of, they need to get their house in order from the senior administrative level. It’s in shambles,” said Michael Boudreau, a criminology professor at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.

“Every day in Nova Scotia we see more and more of the sheer incompetence of this police force from an administrative standpoint. So why then would anyone want to join the ranks of a dysfunctional organization that eats its own?”

The New Brunswick RCMP’s assistant commissioner, DeAnna Hill, said Monday night while attending McAdam’s public meeting that resources are one of the biggest barriers the RCMP is facing. She says recruitment has been difficult across the country and New Brunswick isn’t immune. In over two decades of her career, Hill said she has never seen the staffing situation this bad.

“We're having trouble with retirements and just natural things that happen through attrition. We're having trouble getting people through the door,” she said.

Earlier this month, the Angus Reid Institute released survey results that found 48 per cent of Atlantic Canadians have “little or no confidence” in the RCMP. The union that represents 20,000 RCMP officers nationwide took issue with the survey’s findings, citing different third-party polling that shows high public confidence in the service -- about 76 per cent.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE RCMP?

Boudreau says the RCMP was never intended to be a rural police force, rather a national police force, investigating things like money laundering, human or drug trafficking and terrorism.

“But they were never meant to be policing small, rural communities across the country and they still haven’t figured out how to do that,” he said. “And the Mass Casualty Commission also revealed that the RCMP on the ground trying to respond didn’t know the area. And that’s the problem too because, unlike a municipal force, many of them are rotated in and rotated out of a community.”

But Boudreau isn’t certain a provincial police force would help that, unless more officers can be recruited.

There are examples of communities sharing a police force in New Brunswick.

The BNPP Regional Police, created in 1981, serves Beresford, Nigadoo, Petit-Rocher and Pointe-Verte in northern New Brunswick. During that time, the region “felt the need for a twenty-four (24) hour a day police presence,” according to the BNPP’s website. There are 17 officers and a chief that cover over 27 kilometres and about 9,000 people.

There are currently nine regional and municipal police forces in New Brunswick; the rest of the province is covered by RCMP. The current contract between New Brunswick and the RCMP, which was signed in 2012, is set to expire in 2032.

But while McAdam residents have complaints, an hour away, the town of St. George says it has “complete confidence in the policing services that the RCMP provides.”

“The RCMP is bound by the priorities set by the Province's policing model and doing an excellent job with the significant policing challenges our community is faced in these tough times,” said Mayor John Detorakis in an email.

Boudreau says there are different levels of expectations people have for policing.

“Someone breaks into a tool shed and steals a lawnmower. How effective are the police going to be in finding the perpetrator? Probably not. Or retrieving your stolen goods? Probably not. But if that’s the base level, then the current model isn’t working,” he said. “It’s like a sliding scale.”

Provinces and communities are having these conversations, but Boudreau believes Ottawa should also be asking the same questions. 

“There has to be a fundamental rethink. What is the role of the RCMP? They were never intended to be a rural police force. They’re not arguably that successful at doing it now, and maybe it’s time, from an RCMP perspective, to pull back. If they do that, however, then provinces -- some provinces -- could be left in the lurch. So if they’re not having those discussions on what comes next, they need to start having those discussions.”

With files from the Canadian Press