The Royal Canadian Mounted Police And Its Formation

1. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police And Its Formation National Police Federation

2. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP is the national police force in Canada that provide services like national security intelligence gathering and municipal policing. It was established by the Canadian Government on August 30, 1873. It was signed by Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald and was originally called the North-West Mounted Police Force or NWMP. The organization was formed during the time when Canada needed to have a mounted national police force which can help implement the law in the country's newly acquired western territories. It was on May 23, 1873 when the Dominion Parliament passed an act establishing a mounted police force that will police the vast areas of the north-west territories of Canada (now comprises Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces). The main objectives of the formation of the mounted police force were to gain the respect and confidence of the natives in the country's north-west territories, to tame the wild frontier, and to stop the liquor traffic in the area. National Police Federation

3. Member Recruitment and Training To look for new recruits, the Dominion government posted an advertisement that asked young men to join the North-West Mounted Police as volunteers. Young men across the Dominion who have good antecedents, who were good horsemen, who knew how to read and write either in French or English language, and who were craving for adventure responded to the government's advertisement. The mounted police marched towards southern Alberta in July 1874 to stop the American whisky traders who were at that time operating among the Aboriginal people. National Police Federation

4. The 150 newly recruited men were trained quickly and were sent to Manitoba. But unlike the kind of life that recruited men had dreamed of, they lived under miserable conditions. The government realized that the original group of men was too small to handle the Dominion's Northwest Territories. And so they recruited another group of 150 men. The organization members had continuously grown in number and in 1885 they reached 1000. But when Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier took the office in 1896, the future of the force was threatened. Prime Minister Laurier wanted to reduce the size of the force and finally disband it. With the support that the Force in the West received it did not merely prevailed, it also gained a new prominence. National Police Federation

5. RCMP Canada Today The force is now held under the authority of the RCMP Act. It is being managed, controlled, and headed by a Commissioner. Its head quarter is located in Ottawa. Although the force had faced a series of scandals in the last few decades, it still remains to be one of the most iconic national organizations in Canada. Today, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has evolved into one of the most renowned organizations in the world. The organization has now over 28,000 members and currently has jurisdiction in three territories and eight provinces. Its scope of operations has also grown. The RCMP now helps protect VIPs and handles the operations against terrorism, economic crimes, organized crime, illicit drugs, and other offences that threaten the integrity of the national borders of Canada. National Police Federation