Image: City of Chilliwack live video feed. Superintendent Davy Lee told Chilliwack City Council at its meeting on August 2 that the RCMP and municipal policing agencies are struggling to attract good candidates to policing.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack RCMP

RCMP struggling to attract police recruits, RCMP Superintendent tells Chilliwack Council

Aug 3, 2022 | 6:00 PM

CHILLIWACK — Police aren’t fielding nearly as many applications from candidates seeking a career in policing these days, and there’s a possible reason behind it all, according to an official from the Upper Fraser Valley RCMP detachment in Chilliwack.

RCMP Superintendent Davy Lee told Chilliwack City Council at its meeting Tuesday (Aug. 2) that the narrative around policing has shifted to the point that good candidates are largely bypassing law enforcement and considering other careers.

Lee attended Tuesday’s meeting to present a report about RCMP activities in the community over the past year. After Lee completed his report, Chilliwack councillor Bud Mercer asked Lee about vacancies within the federal police force and whether the RCMP was experiencing personnel shortages.

“It’s across the board,” Lee told Mercer and council members. “We’re definitely not unique in this situation. Chilliwack RCMP are no different than other RCMP within the Lower Mainland or across the province, or even across the country.”

Lee said municipal police agencies in the Lower Mainland are also suffering from a lack of candidates. He attributed it to a shift in how people perceive police.

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“I know our municipal partners, whether it’s Vancouver Police or Abbotsford Police, they’re also suffering as well because, I think, due to the narrative in the last year or so, regarding defunding the police, the police brutality incidents, examples highlighted in the news, sensationalized by the news, has probably detracted from very good candidates even considering policing as a good career choice,” said Lee, who has been a police officer for approximately 32 years.

As a result, Lee said, there’s been a corresponding decrease in the number of candidates applying for a career with the RCMP or city police agencies.

“I think that has resulted in a lack of applicants to the various police forces, so because of that reason, we’re not finding the volume of applicants, and therefore not processing,” he said. “Even the application, I think it’s one in 10 I used to hear that are successful that make it through the process. So, there you go, you see what the odds are in order to gain a lot of applicants to be sent to Regina [RCMP Police Academy] or even the Justice Institute in New Westminster.”