Depending on a few circumstances, the RCMP may be on the hunt for you.
No, they’re not looking for hardened criminals or fugitives on the run but if you fit their profile, they’d like to have a chat with you.
The RCMP launched their second national recruiting advertising campaign last week and as part of the promotion, members of the Red Serge will be hosting an informational meeting at a local this Wednesday evening, Feb. 13.
Daniel Kenny
“We’re holding a career presentation at the Rimbey Junior/Senior High School this Wednesday,” said Cst. Daniel Kenny, the newest and youngest member of the Rimbey RCMP Detachment. “We’re going to have a member from recruiting whose going to come down here and give people an idea of the career itself and maybe answer some questions. Hopefully, we can get a few new members out of it.”
Similar to virtually every other industry, corporation and business large or small, the retiring of hundreds of thousands of baby-boomers; those who were born following the Second World War, has affected the RCMP and their eager to fill their ranks with new recruits.
“The baby-boomers are retiring and all police forces are looking for new people to come in and replace them,” Kenny said. “And the thing is it’s a great opportunity for people. For one thing, there is so much variety of jobs and sections in the RCMP that they can get into.
“With any other job, you’re most likely to do the same things over and over again. But you never know what a job with the RCMP is going to bring you,” he added. “There’s opportunities in forensics, working with dogs, undercover work, border crossings, airports; there’s all kinds of things like that.”
Things have changed dramatically for the national police force since the 1980s and 90s when federal governments invoked strict policies of hiring visible minorities in virtually all departments, including the RCMP.
According to Kenny, who graduated from the training depot in Regina less than one year ago, Depot is currently undergoing an expansion to its barracks to accommodate more recruits.
In addition, he said there are currently two troops of 30 recruits each that begin their training every week with one group starting on a Monday and the other on Wednesdays.
In his case, Kenny said he didn’t need any help in choosing his career option as it was already in his blood with his father and two brothers serving in the RCMP.
‘I grew up with it and I knew that was what I was going to do from an early age. I went to university and studied business administration but that was something that could help me maybe progress further in the RCMP,” he said. “That was my intention – to use it to fall back on if I couldn’t get into the RCMP.”
And even though his studies in business administration may be all for not, he said it certainly helped when he applied to the force because while they may need thousands of new recruits, the RCMP still has some basic requirements for those considering joining.
They include being at least 19 years of age, have at least a Grade 12 education, possess a restriction-free drivers license and no criminal record.
As for a few misnomers that are floating around, Kenny said recruits do not need to be bilingual nor do they need a university education. He also shed a bit of light on the maximum age of recruits, although he couldn’t say for sure exactly what it is.
During training Kenny said he had troop mates who were well into their 40s and recalled cases where new recruits have been over 50 years of age including a woman from Newfoundland who entered training at 52 years of age, graduated, and is now working with the RCMP back on The Rock.
Currently, Kenny said he’s heard of another new recruit currently in training who is 54 years of age and they weren’t all born in Canada. Kenny said one of his troop mates in training was born in India while another was born in Russia.
“Our second advertising campaign will include over 34 million ad impressions on the Internet, including search engines, entertainment sites, job search sites and portals,” said Supt. Glen Siegersma, Officer in Charge of the National Recruiting Program. “Ads will also be in 26 publications, including those targeting Aboriginal and ethnic readers as well as career-focused publications aimed at post-secondary students. For the first time, our ads will appear on transit in 36 cities across the country as well as in fitness centres in 22 cities.
Another first will be radio advertisements in the Atlantic region and in Nunavut. The campaign, which runs until March 2008, is just one of several recruiting initiatives. Recruiting units – and all RCMP employees across the country through Operation Recruit – are working hard to increase awareness and to attract additional numbers of qualified people to consider policing in the RCMP.
“We have more people in the field recruiting, we have more people processing applications, we are offering more career presentations across the country and we are reaching out to more communities than we ever have in the past,” Siegersma added. “You’ll see us at career fairs, on college and university campuses and at various events across the country.”
Their efforts seem to be paying off.
Following the first advertising campaign in January 2007, hits to the national recruiting website were up nearly 150 per cent over the previous year. In addition, between January and March 2007, 340 individuals applied to the RCMP over 148 during the same period the previous year; and 334 applicants wrote the entrance exam from January to March 2007, compared to 160 during the same period in 2006.
The RCMP requires nearly 2,000 new cadets this year and in each of the next few years to meet anticipated demands for services.
For more information about a career in the RCMP, check them out online or plan to be at the presentation on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at the Rimbey high School. The presentation begins at 6:30 p.m.