The RCMP guided a steady stream of potential recruits through its provincial B division headquarters in St. John’s yesterday.
Numbers of applicants and graduates are up across the country, and in Newfoundland and Labrador where 200 candidates are at various stages of the process.
As well, 54 employees from this province returned home to work in the past fiscal year, while 26 are currently at the RCMP police academy in Regina.
Demonstrating some of the investigative tools used by RCMP (VOCM News)
High school students Alex Boland and Brady Ralph would like to join them, saying they were spurred, not deterred, by the recent spike in serious crimes.
“It’s pushed me even more to become a police officer,” said Ralph, 17. Hopefully myself and fellow officers would help lower the crime rate and change it for the better.”
“I was always leaning to a lot of other things, didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but seeing so much now about the shootings and the drugs, it really pushed me to want to make a difference,” added Boland who is 18.
That’s music to the ears of RCMP corporal and chief recruiter, Peter Gosse.
“I find it encouraging because maybe it’s sending the message that we do need more police officers,” he said. “This was once a place where nobody locked their doors, safe communities, safe homes, and maybe people are turning away from that and starting to say maybe I can make a contribution to society and become a police officer and curb some of the crime in our communities.”
