Interesting idea. Our officers could then be dealing with higher priority issues ( drugs, crime).
That’s what they think in Alberta. Unfortunately there has been some backlash on the government politically for doing so. The RCMP watch moves like this very closely because some people see it as the pre-curser to a province having a Provincial police force, thereby eliminating the RCMP. Most people don’t realize that a lot of the Provinces once had their own Provincial police forces. B.C. certainly did. As I understand history, the RCMP came along and offered to police the Provinces for far below the cost that they could police themselves for. The Provinces gave in, not foreseeing that by doing so they would ultimately be paying an organization to police them without having direct control over them. This becomes a problem when the Federal view on policing differs from the Provincial view. Sometimes the priorities just don’t match up. Breaking off duties to give to the Sheriffs is seen by some as the first step back towards Provincial Police Forces.
I’m sure there was a heck of a lot more to it than that but that’s the broad stroke overview as it was explained to me. Ultimately I find it interesting because here in B.C. the Attorney General has made public comments lately about taking a look at the mandate of our own Sheriffs. The landscape of where I work could potentially be in for a huge change.
Or not.
That’s the way Government works. 
Right now, the provinces that do have provincial forces do so because it’s cheaper than the RCMP. That’s the case with the Newfoundland provincial force, as well as the Quebec and Ontario ones.
More than half the mounties in Canada are actually in BC. BC is like 10% of the population, isn’t it?
[quote=“MiG”]
Right now, the provinces that do have provincial forces do so because it’s cheaper than the RCMP. That’s the case with the Newfoundland provincial force, as well as the Quebec and Ontario ones.[/quote]
That’s what makes the story so tragic. The mounties came in at bargain basement prices but then ultimately turned out to be the more expensive option. Just think of the possibilities if we had instead built up our own police force all those decades ago.
The OPP and SQ are the only true provincial police forces…the RNC (Royal Newfoundland Constabulary) is a provincial police force of a sort, but it only is responsible for the major communities in newfoundland, they are predominantly a municipal force…outlying areas are the responsibility of the RCMP
Many communities as well as the provinces have switched over to the RCMP instead of town police or provincial police. The RCMP have advocated that they are able to offer greater economies of scale than municipal and provincial police forces, and bring greater resources to bare (i.e. forensics, K-9 units, ERTs etc…)
There were provincial police forces in pretty well every province from the BC Provincial Police (until 1950…at which point it had just over 490 members) to the New Brunswick Highway Patrol to the Newfoundland Rangers…many of the members of these forces were later absorbed into the RCMP when the hand-over of policing duties occurred.
If that’s the case, then why does Vancouver still have their own City Police? You’d think the “hub” of the Lower Mainland would use something with a little more support.
I’m not getting down on you for mentioning it… I’m just kind of wondering it myself.
[quote=“leftofcentre”]
The OPP and SQ are the only true provincial police forces…the RNC (Royal Newfoundland Constabulary) is a provincial police force of a sort, but it only is responsible for the major communities in newfoundland, they are predominantly a municipal force…outlying areas are the responsibility of the RCMP[/quote]
I think you’re confusing the provincial part of provincial police force.
Provincial policing (and municipal too) is the jurisdiction of the provinces. Most provinces contract these parts out to the RCMP. That’s the case here. The Rupert RCMP are a municipal police force that are under contract. There’s also provincial matters that are contracted to the RCMP. Federal matters, though, are not contracted – they are the jurisdiction of the RCMP, even in places where there’s a provincial police force.
The RNC (or as we used to call them, the Royal Newfoundland Gestapo) are a true provincial police force, in that they handle the provincial duties. In some communities in Newfoundland, the RCMP are contracted to do the municipal policing. It’s not a matter of size, but of convenience. There are small towns with RNC members doing municipal policing as well (I’m thinking of Churchill Falls, population 700 or so, that has RNC members).
Interestingly, a lot of provinces contract out the provincial policing to the RCMP, but allow towns to decide themselves about their own local municipal policing. That’s why you have Vancouver Police, but some of the other cities contract the RCMP. I know of two small towns in Newfoundland have created their own police forces for municipal policing (using neither RCMP or RNC, but their own local guys).
Interesting reading:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_Canada
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_La … _in_Canada
There are relatively small towns across Canada have their own forces too. Like: southsimcoepolice.on.ca/ (I know these guys because I was able to talk my way out of a “no left turn” ticket there with a combination of speaking Portuguese and having Newfoundland plates).
Of course, the most famous small-town police force is in Dog River, SK.
Cheaper, and they have more control (especially political control). They could be like other cities and just contract it out.
No reason that Rupert couldn’t have its own force to do the municipal policing, but then they’d have to train, hire, maintain, etc. Not really worth the effort when you can get a mountie for $100k/year or so each.
But perhaps they can have somebody else do traffic?
I know in Newfoundland a couple of cities have the RNC do their municipal policing, but keep cheaper and separate “traffic police” guys to do traffic enforcement.
I think B.C. could easily break off traffic enforcement and use those RCMP members for other policing duties. I personally wouldn’t be jumping up and down to write tickets all day long, but there are plenty of Sheriffs who would.
Most people wouldn’t know this but the B.C. Sheriffs have some of the best training in Canada. All of our control tactics and firearms training is on par with that of the municipal forces. It’s all taught through the Justice Institute of B.C. and our program was designed directly from the Police program. Our Sheriffs programs are marketed internationally and some of our training is so unique, and so high of calibre that the JI has sold it throughout North America and beyond. We have instructor development programs, driving programs, protective intelligence, control tactics, firearms, access control, media awareness, the list goes on and on.
Well the problem is that when deciding to go with “cheaper” for traffic enforcement, they’d probably overlook the sheriffs and hire “traffic enforcement officers.” I mean if the idea is that RCMP are over-qualified for traffic, then so are the sheriffs.
But then there’s the issue of the routine traffic stops that turn into seriously violent police incidents. So while it’s ok for unarmed municipal traffic guys to pull over American senior citizens driving through Gander, Newfoundland, it’s a different situation in places where a routine traffic stop might turn ugly quickly. then you’ll want a sheriff or mountie to do the stops, right?
But the question has to be asked – why does the guy in the right-hand-drive car with the chalk do the parking enforcement and not the RCMP? Why not give this guy a ticket book and let him run the “rolling stop sign” toll booth?
Your Crazy Mike…
The BC sheriifs are contracted as you know, to provide security, and prisoner transport only.
The organization does little to treat its people like a credible law enfrcement agency, and I think thats reflective in the pay scales.
Unfortunalty I dont see BC sheriffs ever doing highway and traffic stops.
Actually in Alberta the Sherrifs are relatively new (late 2006) to the smokey and the bandit game,
aamdc.com:8081/library/Advoc … letter.pdf
solgen.gov.ab.ca/sheriffs_br … px?id=4970\
enewsletter.alberta.ca/albertago … 147715&p=1
Prior to that it was the folks at the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement branch that also did highway enforcement in the province.
rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ab/news/2007/ … _Sep13.htm
They seem to still have some duties in the world of ticketing as well…
Maybe it’s a competition, whichever branch writes the most tickets in a given period gets to keep the job…
It’s my understanding that eventually the plan in Alberta is to move towards a provincial police department, just a matter of time before another Federal provincial squabble and they decide to go that route…
I know, the city should hire all the Wal-Mart ‘welcomers’ as traffic commissionnaires 
Problem solved and they’re polite too, bonus 
““Its funny you said this, cuz ive been watching them for the last month,…
they park infront of the hanging baskets downtown, and water them for about 15mins EACH!!!
and all this time they leave their TRUCK RUNNING!!! BURNING AND WASTING GAS!!””
You are absolutely right there Jesus_Evolved, I have seen it as well when I have been travelling up, and down third, all the time. Another one that I saw, was one guy laid out on the Service Park grass, while his co-workers worked away.
I might be crazy but you are wrong. First of all we’re not “contracted” to do anything. I hate to quibble over a word but contracted would lead one to believe we are a private business when in fact we are a government agency. Our “mandate” is indeed to provide court security and prisoner transport, but that’s hardly all we do. We’ve come a long way since the days where unarmed Sheriffs sat in court rooms. The fact is, we’re one of the largest, most highly trained, force of peace officers currently employed by the Province of B.C. Also, as it’s been pointed out, Alberta is already doing this. Their Sheriffs are nowhere near as well trained as we are and they are a smaller force. Yet somehow they pulled this off. If they can, it’s possible B.C. can.
Will B.C. do it? Only time will tell. It’s all up to the politicians. As the public pressure builds to do more policing with fewer resources though, they are going to be looking for solutions.
You quibbled…we are all contracted to do whatever it is thats in our job descriptions. You seem to ramble on this post my friend.
So other than Court house/room security, and prisoner transport…what is it you guys do?
True, I understand the distinction between provincial/municipal…my point was that the RNC does not operate province wide like the OPP or the SQ. While many municipalities in Quebec or Ontario have municipal police forces, none have the RCMP on contract…if there is no municipal force, the OPP/SQ (depending on the province) have jurisdiction. In ON and SQ the RCMP work only in a federal enforcement capacity…
the argument about economies of scale/resources is often more applicable to small municipalities…there is a large difference between say Vancouver and Dorchester, NB for example…smaller communities so the argument goes…are able to gain greater resources through “partnering” with the RCMP
Well, he could tell you, but then he’d have to kill you! 
[quote=“ThePodunkian”]
Well, he could tell you, but then he’d have to kill you! [/quote]
“Kill” is such a nasty word. I prefer “I feared for my life and used the least amount of force necessary to stop the threat.”
How about “Well, He could tell you, but then he would have to eliminate you”, leaves you some wriggle room… 