Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officers Research Articles

Daily survey participation and positive changes in mental health symptom scores among Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cadets.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers self-report high levels of mental health disorder symptoms, such as alcohol use disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, panic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Participation in regular mental health monitoring has been associated with improved mental health disorder symptom reporting and may provide an accessible tool to support RCMP mental health. The current study assessed relationships between self-reported mental health disorder symptoms and the completion of daily surveys (i.e., daily mental health disorder symptom monitoring) by RCMP cadets during the Cadet Training Program (CTP). Participants were RCMP cadets (n = 394; 76.1% men) in the Standard Training Program who completed the 26-week CTP and daily self-monitoring surveys, as well as full mental health assessments at pre-training (i.e., starting the CTP) and pre-deployment (i.e., ~2 weeks prior to deployment to the field). Symptoms of alcohol use disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, panic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder were assessed. Changes in mental health disorder symptom reporting from pre-training to pre-deployment were calculated. Spearman's rank correlations were estimated for number of daily surveys completed and change in mental health disorder symptom scores between pre-training and pre-deployment. There were statistically significant inverse relationships between number of daily surveys completed and number of mental health disorder symptoms reported; specifically, cadets who completed more daily surveys during CTP reported fewer symptoms of alcohol use disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, panic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. An inverse correlation between number of daily surveys completed and mental health disorder symptom scores indicated that participation in daily mental health monitoring was associated with improvements in self-reported mental health disorder symptoms between pre-training and pre-deployment. Regular self-monitoring of mental health disorder symptoms may help to mitigate mental health challenges among RCMP cadets and officers.

Putative risk and resiliency factors among Royal Canadian Mounted Police cadets.

Mental health disorders are prevalent among active-duty Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers. The current study was designed to assess whether RCMP cadets commencing the Cadet Training Program are inherently at greater risk of developing mental health challenges by statistically comparing cadet putative risk and resiliency scores to scores from young adult populations. The study was also designed to assess for sociodemographic differences in putative risk and resiliency variables among RCMP cadets in order to facilitate future comparisons. Cadets (n = 772; 72.2% men) completed self-report measures of several putative risk variables (i.e., anxiety sensitivity, fear of negative evaluation, pain anxiety, illness and injury sensitivity, intolerance of uncertainty, and state anger) and resiliency. Scores were statistically compared to samples from Canadian, American, Australian, and European young adult populations. Cadets had statistically significantly lower scores on all putative risk variables and statistically significantly higher resiliency scores compared to the young adult populations. In the cadet sample, there were statistically significant differences in putative risk and resiliency variables across gender and sex. Cadets' significantly lower scores on putative risk variables and higher scores on resiliency suggest that they may be psychologically strong; as such, it may be that the nature of police work, as opposed to inherent individual differences in risk and resiliency, accounts for active-duty RCMP officers' comparatively higher prevalence of mental health disorders over time.Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier NCT05527509.

Is this discursive Yentling? A critical study of an RCMP officer’s interaction with a child sexual assault complainant

ABSTRACT The present study features an interview between a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer and a female indigenous minor, who was reporting her own sexual assault. The study highlights how the child's interview with the officer appears to include gender-specific judgements. Thus far, few critical studies, underscoring interview techniques, feature power relations and ideologies in the discourse. This study identifies police negotiation with female assault complainants as discursive Yentling. Inspired by the term Yentl syndrome, where female health is often underappreciated because it is judged from male prerogatives, the present study proposes that discursive Yentling emerges from victim blaming, perpetrator mitigation, and the sexualization of rape. Drawing attention to transcripts of an RCMP interview with a child complainant, this study asks (1) what power relations and ideologies manifest in the dialogue between the officer and the complainant? (2) Do the findings give evidence for discursive Yentling? Transitivity analysis and a discourse historical approach reveal ideological predispositions towards the complainant during the interview. The implications for this study hopefully provoke more considered police interview techniques for potential victims of sexual assault and inculcate a culture of feminist understanding in Canadian public services.

Short-Term Acute Exposure to Wildfire Smoke and Lung Function among Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Officers.

The increasing incidence of extreme wildfire is becoming a concern for public health. Although long-term exposure to wildfire smoke is associated with respiratory illnesses, reports on the association between short-term occupational exposure to wildfire smoke and lung function remain scarce. In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed data from 218 Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers (mean age: 38 ± 9 years) deployed at the Fort McMurray wildfires in 2016. Individual exposure to air pollutants was calculated by integrating the duration of exposure with the air quality parameters obtained from the nearest air quality monitoring station during the phase of deployment. Lung function was measured using spirometry and body plethysmography. Association between exposure and lung function was examined using principal component linear regression analysis, adjusting for potential confounders. In our findings, the participants were predominantly male (71%). Mean forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), and residual volume (RV) were 76.5 ± 5.9 and 80.1 ± 19.5 (% predicted). A marginal association was observed between air pollution and higher RV [β: 1.55; 95% CI: −0.28 to 3.37 per interquartile change of air pollution index], but not with other lung function indices. The association between air pollution index and RV was significantly higher in participants who were screened within the first three months of deployment (2.80; 0.91 to 4.70) than those screened later (−0.28; −2.58 to 2.03), indicating a stronger effect of air pollution on peripheral airways. Acute short-term exposure to wildfire-associated air pollutants may impose subtle but clinically important deleterious respiratory effects, particularly in the peripheral airways.

Equine Programs for Military Veterans and RCMP Officers with Occupational Stress Injuries: A Qualitative Analysis

Alternative approaches to mental health and support programming for military veterans and for officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with occupational stress injuries have recently received attention in the field of post-traumatic stress. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the experiences of military veterans and actively serving RCMP officers with occupational stress injuries who participated in an exploratory study using an equine-assisted learning program. Using a focus group research design, 20 veterans and five RCMP officers were interviewed about their experiences in a 4-week equine-assisted learning program. A thematic content analysis, following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) method, revealed five main themes: (1) appreciation for the value of learning new skills, (2) connection with the horse in terms of the human–animal bond, (3) self-regulation and learning to “speak horse,” (4) sense of accomplishment and competence, and (5) transferable skills to everyday life. The qualitative findings of this study provide support for the use of equine-assisted learning programming with military veterans and RCMP members and demonstrate potential as an alternative therapeutic intervention for occupational stress injuries in these populations.

Factors that Influence the Decision to Seek Help in a Police Population.

Police officers face many competing pressures and demands. Exposure to potentially traumatic incidents and significant job-related stressors can place many at higher risk of developing physical and mental health problems. The police culture exerts a pronounced influence on officers, preventing some from asking for or receiving assistance. The stigma of being perceived as weak or incompetent, concerns about being labelled unfit for duty, and worry that accessing psychological support will impact future career advancement can affect the decision to seek help. The Enhanced Critical Incident Technique was utilized to investigate the following research question: What helps or hinders the decision to access psychological services in a police population? Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 serving Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers in the lower mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The findings encompass five main themes: the importance of systemic factors, access to information and education, quality and influence of relationships, individual characteristics, and organizational processes that will increase the likelihood of accessing mental health services. The results contribute to the empirical literature by enhancing what is known about elements that influence an officers’ decision to seek psychological services, and factors that can enable officers to overcome barriers.

Mental health and social support among public safety personnel.

Social support may be a protective factor for the mental health of public safety personnel (PSP), who are frequently exposed to potentially psychologically traumatic events and report substantial post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) symptoms. Research examining perceived social support and its association with PTSD and MDD in different PSP categories (e.g. firefighters, paramedics) is limited. To examine differences in perceived social support across PSP and determine whether perceived social support is associated with differences in rates of MDD and PTSD. We asked Canadian PSP, including correctional workers and officers, public safety communications officials, firefighters, paramedics, municipal and provincial police officers, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers, to complete an online anonymous survey that assessed socio-demographic information (e.g. occupation, sex, marital status, service years), social supports and symptoms of mental disorders, including PTSD and MDD. Analyses included ANOVA and logistic regression models. Perceived social support differed by PSP occupation. RCMP officers reported lower social support than all other PSP except paramedics. For most PSP categories, PSP who reported greater social support were less likely to screen positive for PTSD (adjusted odds ratios [AORs]: 0.90-0.93). Across all PSP categories, greater perceived social support was associated with a decreased likelihood of screening positive for MDD (AORs: 0.85-0.91). Perceived social support differs across some PSP categories and predicts PTSD and MDD diagnostic status. Studies involving diagnostic clinical interviews, longitudinal designs and social support interventions are needed to replicate and extend our results.

Open secularism and the RCMP turban debate

This article examines newspaper articles and opinion pieces related to the 1989 and 1990 case of allowing RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) officers to wear turbans as part of their formal uniform. Many of those opposed to allowing for this change in RCMP policy demonstrate a sense of an assumed national identity that tends to label immigrants and people from non-European backgrounds as un-Canadian. Once the federal government approved this change in RCMP policy, some of the groups that opposed it attempted to bring it to the Supreme Court of Canada. The argument they made was one for closed secularism. The policy change, however, and the impact it had on Baltej Singh Dhillon, the first Sikh RCMP officer who became an officer and was allowed to wear his turban the results of which present a case for open secularism.

Community Policing: Perceptions of Officers Policing Indigenous Communities

The introduction of the First Nations Policing Program (FNPP) in 1992 was intended to provide professional and culturally appropriate policing responsive to community needs; however, there is considerable evidence that these efforts have fallen short of what was originally envisioned. This research examines perceptions about police work from a 2014 survey of 827 sworn officers policing Indigenous communities and draws some comparisons to the results of surveys conducted in 1996 and 2007 by different sets of researchers that asked the same questions of officers policing these places. Our results show that perceptions have changed: Officers in 2014 were less likely to favour key aspects of community policing, such as getting to know community members, soliciting help from the community, or getting help from community agencies, and a growing number of officers did not feel that Indigenous policing required a different policing style. We found these results varied according to the respondent’s organizational affiliation and whether the individual was of Indigenous ancestry; additionally, as the proportion of non-Indigenous and Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers increased, the support for community policing decreased. Given these findings, implications for a renewal of Indigenous policing are discussed.

Youth perceptions of police in rural Atlantic Canada

Canadian research on public perceptions of police is limited, especially studies examining rural youth. Most research examining youth perceptions and experiences of police, both within and outside of Canada, has been conducted in urban areas. In this article, we highlight findings from a case study of rural youth that explores how youth in remote, rural areas perceive the police and the factors that shape their perceptions. We examine the influence of parents and young people’s own interactions with police on the perceptions youth have of Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers in a rural Atlantic province, suggesting the impact of vicarious experience on personal views of police. We then highlight experiences of satisfaction and confidence (or a lack thereof) relating to questions of transparency, trust and police legitimacy. Implications for further research on police practice and with youth based in rural regions and wider comparisons with urban contexts are discussed.

“The Greatest Man-Catcher of All”: The First Female Mounties, the Media, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police1

The arrival of the first female Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers disrupted the highly masculinized image of a police force that was closely connected to ideal Canadian manhood and the formation of the nation. The absence of women from the historical record allowed the figure of the manly and heroic male Mountie to continue its dominance in official, academic, and popular histories of the police force. Both the print and broadcast media were complicit in disseminating these representations. When the first female Mounties were hired in 1974, editorial cartoonists and journalists frequently portrayed them in highly gendered terms that reflected understandings of femininity in operation in broader Canadian society at the time. The RCMP also articulated the arrival of the first female RCMP officers in gendered terms, reinforcing beliefs about manliness and masculinity as essential attributes for police officers. In contrast to these depictions, the oral histories of female RCMP officers present an alternative perspective that challenged and contested these gendered assumptions, establishing female Mounties as equal participants in the policing activities, and the history, of the RCMP on their own terms.

Scheduling Security Personnel for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games

The Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (V2010-ISU) ensured security during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. Over six thousand Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers provided round-the-clock security for 30 venues and 27 functions. The V2010-ISU needed to develop shift schedules for the RCMP officers so that not only were hourly security requirements met, but work shifts needed to satisfy a variety of scheduling constraints (shift lengths, start times, rest periods, etc.). As the number of personnel that were required for each hour at each venue was anticipated to change, V2010-ISU planners required an automated means of generating efficient schedules quickly. This paper details the mathematical programming model which formed the basis of a software tool that was developed to assist security planners in personnel scheduling. It provides a novel mathematical formulation for the technique of applying integer programming to scheduling problems, in the context of an important practical application.

Evaluation of Auditory Functions for Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officers

Auditory fitness for duty (AFFD) testing is an important element in an assessment of workers' ability to perform job tasks safely and effectively. Functional hearing is particularly critical to job performance in law enforcement. Most often, assessment is based on pure-tone detection thresholds; however, its validity can be questioned and challenged in court. In an attempt to move beyond the pure-tone audiogram, some organizations like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are incorporating additional testing to supplement audiometric data in their AFFD protocols, such as measurements of speech recognition in quiet and/or in noise, and sound localization. This article reports on the assessment of RCMP officers wearing hearing aids in speech recognition and sound localization tasks. The purpose was to quantify individual performance in different domains of hearing identified as necessary components of fitness for duty, and to document the type of hearing aids prescribed in the field and their benefit for functional hearing. The data are to help RCMP in making more informed decisions regarding AFFD in officers wearing hearing aids. The proposed new AFFD protocol included unaided and aided measures of speech recognition in quiet and in noise using the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) and sound localization in the left/right (L/R) and front/back (F/B) horizontal planes. Sixty-four officers were identified and selected by the RCMP to take part in this study on the basis of hearing thresholds exceeding current audiometrically based criteria. This article reports the results of 57 officers wearing hearing aids. Based on individual results, 49% of officers were reclassified from nonoperational status to operational with limitations on fine hearing duties, given their unaided and/or aided performance. Group data revealed that hearing aids (1) improved speech recognition thresholds on the HINT, the effects being most prominent in Quiet and in conditions of spatial separation between target and noise (Noise Right and Noise Left) and least considerable in Noise Front; (2) neither significantly improved nor impeded L/R localization; and (3) substantially increased F/B errors in localization in a number of cases. Additional analyses also pointed to the poor ability of threshold data to predict functional abilities for speech in noise (r² = 0.26 to 0.33) and sound localization (r² = 0.03 to 0.28). Only speech in quiet (r² = 0.68 to 0.85) is predicted adequately from threshold data. Combined with previous findings, results indicate that the use of hearing aids can considerably affect F/B localization abilities in a number of individuals. Moreover, speech understanding in noise and sound localization abilities were poorly predicted from pure-tone thresholds, demonstrating the need to specifically test these abilities, both unaided and aided, when assessing AFFD. Finally, further work is needed to develop empirically based hearing criteria for the RCMP and identify best practices in hearing aid fittings for optimal functional hearing abilities.

Do You See What I See? The Influence of Gender Stereotypes on Student and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Perceptions of Violent Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Relationships

ABSTRACT Forty-one men and 67 women undergraduate students, as well as 35 men and 27 women Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers, rated the abusiveness of intimate partner violence (IPV) vignettes portraying each possible gender combination of victim and perpetrator (Harris & Cook, 1994). Rating differences according to victim and perpetrator gender, occupation (student or RCMP officer), and participant gender were anticipated. Analyses found that student and RCMP ratings of abuse severity were both highest for the male-female scenario. However, the RCMP considered the female-male, male-male, and female-female scenarios to be more abusive than did the students. Our findings suggest that, while the RCMP appeared to be more sensitive to male and same-sex victims than students, both groups remain somewhat biased.

The appropriate and inappropriate use of child restraint seats in Manitoba

The objective of this research was to describe the use and incorrect use of child restraint systems in Manitoba, Canada. In 2004, a team of inspectors made up of Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers and trained car seat technicians from the Manitoba child seat coalition conducted a descriptive survey of types and frequency of child restraint systems' incorrect use. The setting was 10 roadside inspection sites located around the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The subjects were parents and primary caregivers of children using child restraint systems. The main outcome measured was the reported appropriate use rate as determined by the compliance to safety standards for correct installation and use of child restraints. A total of 340 child restraint systems were assessed. The overall rate of incorrect use was 70%. The errors present in stage III systems (booster seats) are much lower than the errors present in stage I systems (rear-facing child safety seats) and stage II systems (forward-facing child safety seats). The data presented illustrate that incorrect use of child restraint systems in the province of Manitoba is a large problem and must be dealt with immediately in order to ensure child safety now and in the future. Community-wide information and enhanced enforcement campaigns, consisting of activities such as mass media, information and publicity, child restraint systems displays and special enforcement strategies (check points, dedicated law enforcement officials, alternative penalties) should be used to increase the correct use of child restraint systems. Failure to use child restraint systems properly can contribute to serious injury or death of a child.

Science for the People: Northern Field Stations and Governmentality

Noah Piugaattuk, one of Igloolik's most celebrated Elders, was a local icon of indigenous wisdom. Piugaattuk (Figure 1) passed away a few years ago in his mid-nineties, having lived to witness Igloolik life for nearly the entire twentieth century. Among his many experiences, he had travelled the region as a catechist and guide to the early missionaries, witnessing many of the profound changes to Inuit culture from these early days. His knowledge of the language and skills of the land was probably second to none. He was a living repository of Inuit language, history, and culture. I had the honour to get to know Piugaattuk a little when I spent some months in 1988 living in Igloolik studying how new technologies were transforming oral traditions and recording voices and sounds for a photography exhibition. When I met Piugaattuk, he already had a reputation as a unique source of Inuit traditional knowledge. Equipped with a tape recorder and microphone, I followed in the tracks of previous researchers, listening to stories about his life and times, and asking questions to understand how Inuit expert knowledge about Arctic travel is stored and taught through their oral tradition. Piugaattuk seemed to me not to possess the habit familiar to many of us of communicating dry information; he was too much of a leader and teacher, possessed of a wry sense of humour, which forced us 'researchers' - a label broadly applied to people who incessantly ask questions, whether natural scientists, social scientists or journalists - to reflect on the nature of the questions we put to him. I remember one instance when Piugaattuk (personal communication June 1988) was telling me that contrary to what I had read in the scholarly literature about the remarkable accuracy of Inuit topographical knowledge, he did not consider maps, mental or material, to be a traditional Inuit technology, on the grounds that they were too unreliable a medium for storing geographical knowledge safely. As if to prove their marginal importance, he wryly recalled that that his first map had been given to him by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, who, searching for a lost person, needed Piugaattuk to show him his own location on his map, and then to direct him towards the area where the missing person had last been sighted. One reason I still remember the story of the RCMP officer is that it captured a truth about knowledge in small communities such as Igloolik: knowledge is virtually always mediated. This flew in the face of a pervasive myth about travel, that one can find out what a distant place is really like by going there to see it first-hand. My own journey to Igloolik had been motivated by a burning desire to see life in a northern community. Much of what I had read back in Cambridge had seemed distanced, dated, removed. I wanted to see things for myself and form my own judgements. What I discovered that summer in northern Canada was that access to life in the community, and no less 'out on the land', away from it all, was mediated by gatekeepers. Perhaps this should not have come as such a surprise for me. In previous summers, I had visited other communities while working as a satellite communications engineer for Telesat, a private company - thereby becoming known to locals as the 'Telesat man'. Sensing that Inuit kept a distance from transitory visitors, I had imagined that behind the scenes was an Inuit culture that, under other circumstances, I would be able to join in as myself once I had shed my professional baggage. This was to prove naive because the institutionalisation of Inuit culture had been taking place for decades in complex ways that I did not yet understand. Most Inuit had direct experience with institutions both new (e.g. government officials, the Hudson Bay trading post) and old (social institutions such as the extended family). Although some institutions, such as residential schools, were the source of many Inuit problems, other institutions could provide some of the solutions. …

Victim‐precipitated homicide: police use of deadly force in British Columbia

This study examines the underlying reasons for the police use of deadly force and potential deadly force, in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, during the period 1980‐94. Within this context, interactional violence and the phenomenon of victim‐precipitated homicide are examined in relation to the police use of deadly force. This study analyzes 58 separate documented incidents in which municipal and Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, within the Province of British Columbia, have been confronted by a potentially lethal threat. In 27 of these incidents, the police responded by discharging their firearms and killing a total of 28 people. The remaining 31 cases that were examined reflect incidents in which the police responded with less‐lethal force. Through the examination of police investigations, verdict‐at‐coroner’s‐inquest reports, BC Police Commission data and interviews with police officers, this study reveals that, in roughly half of the cases examined (N = 28), the police reacted to a potentially lethal threat of victim‐precipitated homicide. These are incidents in which despondent individuals suffering from suicidal tendencies, mental illness, or extreme substance abuse, acted in a calculated and deliberate manner so as to force the police to use potential or deadly force. The study recommends that police personnel within the Province of British Columbia should be given further alternatives to the standard‐issue firearm, when responding to potentially lethal threats. Non‐lethal tools of compliance should be made readily available to the operational police officer with a view to providing alternatives to the traditional use of deadly force. In addition, the training of police personnel should emphasize non‐violent strategies in dealing with irrational individuals who are suicidal, mentally disordered and/or intoxicated.

Community policing: The views of police executives in British Columbia

After reviewing the development of community policing in Canada and research on police leadership, this article details the results of an exploratory study which assesses the view of all municipal police leaders in British Columbia towards community policing. The police leaders comprised of 19 Officers in Charge (OIC's) of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) municipal police detachments and 12 Chief Constables from independent municipal police departments. The results show that while the police leaders are supportive of the movement towards community policing, both OIC's and chief constables argue for gradual, slow, incremental change. However, it is the RCMP officers who are anticipating more resistance to change from both subordinates and the organizational structure of the force. The article concludes that there exists not one type of police leadership in BC but two, characterised by the organizational structure in which the executive officer is working.