Question Period Note: Rural Crime

• The RCMP provides local policing services across Canada’s vast territory, much of which is rural.

• Policing in rural and isolated communities can pose unique complexities, and the RCMP works with the provinces and territories to optimize available resources.

• To address rural crime, RCMP jurisdictions have developed and pursued customized initiatives which aim to address the unique and diverse characteristics of the communities they serve. For example, the RCMP’s Crime Reduction Strategy in Alberta led to a 6 percent reduction in reported property crimes between 2018 and 2019.

• The RCMP’s recruitment efforts and enhanced service delivery options will also enable it to bolster its presence and community safety across the country.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is Canada’s national police force and provides contract policing services to eight provinces, three territories, approximately 150 municipalities, and hundreds of Indigenous communities, as well as federal policing services for all Canadians. Given the geographic scope of Canada, much of the territory under RCMP jurisdiction is rural.

Policing rural and isolated communities may pose a number of complexities, including the demand it puts on police resources. The RCMP works with provinces and territories to evaluate needs and optimize the available resources for rural communities. Contract policing ensures a consistent quality of service across Canada with the level of policing services provided in each province and territory determined by the provincial or territorial governments. In this way, objectives, priorities and goals for policing in each respective jurisdiction are also determined by the RCMP in consultation with provinces and territories. As such, each jurisdiction may develop and pursue individual, customized initiatives to address the issue of rural crime, as opposed to a single national solution. Local priorities and crime prevention approaches are discussed regularly by community leaders and RCMP Detachment Commanders.

The RCMP currently has a number of Enhanced Service Delivery Options to support alternative policing service delivery approaches within RCMP contracted jurisdictions. These options include: the Community Program Officer Program, the Community Constable Pilot Program, the Auxiliary Program, and the Reserve Program which is designed to address existing vacancies or resourcing pressures.

The roles of these options are to:
• enhance, not replace, existing RCMP core resources.
• draw from the unique skill sets of community members.
• solidify the relationship between the RCMP and the communities we serve.
• help the RCMP better meet community and client needs and expectations.

Examples of Rural Crime Initiatives:

National Level: The RCMP implements many different initiatives to address the root causes of crime, as well as to solve crime. For example, in 2020, the RCMP and the National Crime Stoppers Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a collaborative effort for solving crime. In addition, as a partner to the Federal Family Violence Initiative, the RCMP’s Vulnerable Persons Unit receives annual funding, which is distributed to RCMP detachments, non-profit community organizations, as well as municipal, provincial, and territorial partners to support communities in responding to, and reducing root causes of crime and family violence. Since 2004, this fund has supported over 315 local-level initiatives in communities across Canada. Moreover, the RCMP implements youth-targeted crime prevention initiatives in an effort to reduce youth involvement in crime. For example, the RCMP hosts national Youth Leadership Workshops annually that bring together youth from across the country for a five-day event. With the support of an RCMP ally, the youth identify an issue in their communities and develop a community action plan to help address the issue. The RCMP also launched the Centre for Youth Crime Prevention—an online hub that provides youth, adults working with youth, and police officers across Canada with evidence-informed and age-appropriate crime prevention messages, information, tools, and programs to prevent youth crime and victimization. This resource centre aims to help communities motivate youth to think critically, build skills that support positive decision making and make changes in their lives and communities.

In accordance with national policy, RCMP National Crime Prevention Services now facilitates the exchange of information and sharing of best practices between divisions. A Rural Crime Reduction Toolbox is also available to all employees on the RCMP’s intranet. This toolbox provides good practices and tools from RCMP divisions and external resources.

Province of Alberta: The RCMP in Alberta have implemented a comprehensive Crime Reduction Strategy, as the foundational basis for the delivery of policing services to the people of Alberta. Built on proven methodologies, and using evidence and intelligence, the Strategy focusses policing resources to proactively target the small percentage of people involved in criminal activity, as well as on community partner engagement to address the root causes of crime so the cycle of crime with the most prolific criminals can be broken. The strategy is data-driven and built on four pillars: apprehension, offender management, targeted prevention, and suppression. In April 2018, the Alberta RCMP set up four dedicated Crime Reduction Teams in rural areas. These teams are spread out across Alberta and are focussing on prominent rural crime concerns, such as cases of breaking and entering, and property theft. As a result of this Crime Reduction Strategy, RCMP Crime Reduction Units made over 700 arrests and recovered stolen property valued at over $1 million in 2018 and 2019. This has generated a 6% reduction in reported property crime between 2018 and 2019.

Province of Saskatchewan: The Government of Saskatchewan’s Community Safety Officer (CSO) initiative is also a strong example. CSOs are municipal employees tasked with carrying out high-priority, low-risk enforcement of bylaws and select provincial statutes. Diverting these types of investigations to CSOs has freed up the RCMP to focus on more serious crimes. There are CSOs located in a number of rural communities and Saskatchewan RCMP encourages communities to consider the CSO program. Further, a Provincial Domestic Violence Coordinator position has been created in “F” Division, whose responsibilities include being a resource for complex Violence in Relationships files. This includes working with various community programs for both offenders and victims, and ensuring quality of investigations throughout the province.

Province of Manitoba: The RCMP in Manitoba has also implemented a Crime Reduction Strategy that includes efforts to reduce incidents, severity, fear, and impact in rural communities. The objectives include forming partnerships, evidence-based service delivery, and results-based accountability. The focus of the strategy is on the root causes of crime, prolific offenders, and crime hot spots.

Indigenous Communities across Canada: The RCMP works closely with Indigenous groups to develop innovative and culturally-sensitive and responsive policing approaches that meet their distinctive needs, helping to foster positive relationships with Indigenous communities, in the spirit of reconciliation. For example, the RCMP Commissioner has a National Indigenous Advisory Committee, comprised of representatives from RCMP Division Commanding Officers’ own advisory committees, and with whom the Commissioner meets semi-annually to seek strategic advice and cultural perspectives regarding the delivery of Indigenous policing services. Divisional Commanding Officers’ advisory committees exist to maintain and strengthen partnerships with Indigenous communities, and to help identify policing needs and mobilize the support of communities in addressing them. Furthermore, in support of a rural crime strategy, the RCMP is currently updating Restorative Justice policies, procedures and tools to strengthen the organizations role as a referral agent of Restorative Justice across the RCMP.
Restorative Justice is a process that involves victims, offenders, and the community to deal with the impact of criminal and offending behaviour by addressing the needs of victims and the community with an emphasis on offender accountability and repairing harm.

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