Public Safety Committee on May 2nd, 2013

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

If they were traveling with you or with an RCMP officer and all of a sudden the officer got a call to respond to a domestic dispute or a bank robbery or something, would you just...? Obviously you don't have time to drop off the person at the detachment. Would that person stay behind in the car? How does it work? Or would they maybe assist with radio communications or something while the officer did the front-line work?

[Insp Tyler Bates]

Potentially. You certainly have to be mindful of finding a safe function and a safe place for that auxiliary because as you pointed out, there might not always be the possibility of dropping off that auxiliary. Your risk can be minimized, but it can't be entirely eliminated. We are very mindful of creating the safest possible situation for the auxiliary, and manning the radio might be the function they operate.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much for that.

Just as an aside, can the auxiliary police officer drive the police car?

[Insp Tyler Bates]

No. They're not operating police cars. They accompany the regular member on preventive patrols and attend some calls for service.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

So even in a parade you wouldn't tell them to take the car and go?

[D/Commr Doug Lang]

Our policy states that auxiliary officers may operate police transport subject to the approval of the commanding officer, but they must not operate police transport under hazardous conditions. For example, a commanding officer can designate a certain auxiliary constable to take a car, usually an unmarked car or a slick car without lights, to do security in a parade or a school talk or that kind of thing.

I'm the same as Tyler. I've been in the car with auxiliaries and with summer students when I got involved in a high-speed pursuit or had to deal with an impaired driver all over the road. We pull over to the side of the road and tell them to get out, and out they get and wait for the next car to come by. It's happened because you cannot put them in the line of danger. But they can operate under certain conditions. We will put them....

I think you're talking about Alberta, where we have our retro cars. They will be driving the retro car in a parade rather than a....

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Because in my riding, at a lot of these parades in small towns, everybody wants the police there. They want the RCMP, with the lights going, to lead the parade. You have a police officer driving to a town, sometimes for half an hour, to lead a parade.

All right, sorry for that.

Madame Michaud, you have five minutes.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was afraid that I was not going to have any more time.

Thank you for coming back to see us.

I would like to finish off this issue by asking you for a quick clarification. You said that you could require an auxiliary constable to take some training before being able to accompany police officers in a patrol car. Can you tell us what kind of training that is?

[Insp Tyler Bates]

Again, it varies from province to province.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

In general terms, what would the minimum training be?

[Insp Tyler Bates]

Okay, they all receive first aid and CPR training. They receive training on our intervention management model, so our use of force model is what that pertains to. They receive some health and safety training as well.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

What I gathered from your presentation is that that is the basic training for all auxiliaries.

[Insp Tyler Bates]

Yes.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

So the basic training is enough to let them get into a police car unless a province or territory has a specific requirement. Is that correct?

[Insp Tyler Bates]

Yes, it enables them to be in the company of a regular member, under the direct supervision of a regular member. Whether that's in a police car or whether it's in the office, for that matter, certainly the training they have enables them to have that place.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Thank you.

I would now like to go back to the questions raised by my colleague, Mr. Garrison. The questions deal with how representative the corps of auxiliary constables are.

Are special efforts made to recruit groups such as women? Do you have an idea of the percentage of women working as auxiliary constables? If it is difficult to provide an exact percentage, perhaps you could give us an approximate one.

[D/Commr Doug Lang]

At the moment, women represent about 23% of RCMP members. Our commissioner’s goal is to bring that figure up to 30%, then to aim for 50% later. So we will have to make changes to our recruiting system for several years in order to bring the representation of that group to that level.

As for auxiliary constables, our community recruitment targets the same kinds of people as we do for regular members. We try to interest them in becoming a part of the RCMP with programs like community watches, the auxiliary constables program, or other volunteer programs before they become regular members. That is one way in which young high school or college women can experience the life of a regular RCMP member.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Yes, but is there a special program, or are there special steps taken to go out and recruit women specifically? I was not talking about the wider efforts to recruit in the community, but about what you are doing to target the recruitment of women.

[D/Commr Doug Lang]

There are targeted programs to recruit women as regular members, but not as auxiliaries. That is a special program. We have no recruiting programs specifically for auxiliaries.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

So it must be difficult to meet your goals, to recruit so many women, if there are no specific steps in place to do so. Is that not something to think about in order to improve the recruitment of auxiliary constables?

[D/Commr Doug Lang]

Perhaps.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Thank you for your honesty.

[D/Commr Doug Lang]

We have never focused a lot on recruiting auxiliary constables because recruiting women in general is a problem for us.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

I understand.

My next question is in the same vein, in a way. In some of the areas you cover, and I am thinking about places like Manitoba and New Brunswick, there are large francophone populations. Are specific steps taken to recruit francophone auxiliary constables, so that you get good representation in the corps?

[D/Commr Doug Lang]

I cannot give you concrete examples of that. However, each detachment commander determines the number of auxiliaries needed in the detachment within the budget they have been given. In Franco-Manitoban communities, there are certainly francophone auxiliaries, but I do not believe that there is a proactive recruiting campaign.