Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is Canada's national police service, originally established as the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1873. Created to maintain law and order in newly acquired territories, the NWMP aimed to prevent violent conflicts between European settlers and Indigenous populations. Initially modeled after the Royal Irish Constabulary, the force played a vital role in establishing a police presence in regions previously unpatrolled by centralized law enforcement. Over the years, the NWMP evolved, gaining renown for its success in maintaining peace during events such as the Klondike gold rush.
In 1920, the NWMP merged with the Dominion Police to form the RCMP, which took on broader responsibilities, including national security and border patrol, especially during World War I. Throughout the 1930s, the RCMP expanded its role, effectively becoming the primary policing body for multiple provinces. However, its involvement in security operations during the 1970s led to controversies that resulted in a reevaluation of its security functions. Despite these challenges, the RCMP has maintained a strong reputation and continues to engage in international training efforts. With a history deeply intertwined with Canada’s development and a commitment to diverse policing roles, the RCMP remains a symbol of national identity and law enforcement in Canada.
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Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Identification: Canadian national police force
Date: Founded in 1873
Significance: The Canadian equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a powerful police institution with a presence at the national, provincial, and civic levels.
The Canadian government created the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was originally called, in 1873. Canada had just acquired the vast territory known as Rupert's Land, which extended from what is now the northeastern border of Quebec all the way to the Pacific coast, and European settlers were about to begin expanding into regions previously occupied only by First Nations and other indigenous peoples. The NWMP was created with the goal of maintaining law and order in these regions and preventing the types of violent clashes experienced between settlers and native populations in the American West. Previously, Canada had had little police presence outside the major cities, and certainly no centralized law-enforcement body. When it was deployed in June 1984, the NWMP bore little resemblance to these local constabularies; rather, it was modeled after the Royal Irish Constabulary, a quasi-military armed police force that was active in Ireland, then under British control, at the time.
The NWMP was successful in ensuring order, particularly during the Klondike gold rush at the end of the nineteenth century, and generally maintained positive relations with First Nations peoples. In 1904, King Edward VII officially renamed the force the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNWMP). During World War I, the RNWMP's responsibilities expanded to include border patrols, national security enforcement, and surveillance.
By the end of World War I, the future of the RNWMP was anything but secure. Under the Canadian constitution, policing was a provincial responsibility, and accordingly, individual provinces had established their own police forces. Though the force faced the threat of dissolution, it instead merged with the Dominion Police—previously primarily responsible for guarding government leaders, federal buildings, and infrastructure, as well as some intelligence-gathering activities and the enforcement of certain federal laws—in 1920 to form its modern incarnation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Still struggling to establish its primary role, the RCMP mostly spent its first decade spying on communists and enforcing federal rules and regulations rather than fighting crime.
The turning point for the force arrived with the Great Depression. Saskatchewan had already contracted with the RCMP to replace its provincial police force; in 1932, due to financial difficulties, four more provinces—Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island—followed suit. In the long run, only Quebec, Ontario, and Newfoundland would keep their own provincial police forces. The RCMP was now in a particularly powerful position, as it worked at the national level, at the provincial level, and in some provinces even at the civic level. It was also in charge of Canada’s domestic security as it continued to monitor communist espionage and subversion.
Eventually, as with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s COINTELPRO program in the United States, it was this security role, rather than its usual law-enforcement activities, that would cause problems for the force. During the 1970s, illegal activities by the RCMP directed against Quebec separatists became public, leading to a special inquiry by the Canadian government that removed most of the RCMP’s security-related functions. However, its regular policing role continued untainted, with a renewed emphasis on curtailing international crime, including the smuggling of drugs and of people. As a sign of the respect the RCMP has enjoyed, some of its members traveled abroad to train officers in the developing democracies of Haiti and Bosnia.
Bibliography
Baker, William M., ed. The Mounted Police and Prairie Society, 1873–1919. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 1998. Print.
"History of the RCMP." Royal Canadian Mounted Police. RCMP, 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.
Kelly, Nora, and William Kelly. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police: A Century of History, 1873–1973. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1973. Print.
MacLeod, R. C. "Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada, 22 Mar. 2015. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.