This is what it's like at RCMP training depot, Regina

Cst. R. Lindsey S. Donovan, RCMP Kings Detachment, was guest speaker at the November meeting of Kings Crime Prevention Association (KCPA) at the Wandlyn Inn, Coldbrook.

Donovan graduated Dec. 17 and is originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. New Minas is his first detachment. His topic Nov. 25 was “RCMP training at Depot Academy”, Regina, Saskatchewan.

Training for the RCMP began in 1885 and for a number of years was located in Ottawa, Ontario. However, in the ‘70s the training was moved to Regina, which is the only training facility in Canada. The RCMP Musical Ride is still located in Ottawa.

Applicants for the RCMP must go through a lengthy process, physical fitness requirements and polygraph testing that can take up to a year or more.

Donovan said the program is 24 weeks in length. There are on average 32 cadets in a troop who are together for the full 24 weeks. Recruits are from all over Canada and female recruits receive the same training as their counterparts.

There are approximately 8,000 applicants per year and about 1,200 are accepted into the program. Only approximately 350 complete the program each year. The age limit is 19 (no maximum age). The cadets are paid $500 per week and room and board are provided. Every day of the 24 weeks is a full schedule lasting a total of between 10 and 14 hours with 7.5 hours on planned syllabus.

If you fail a test, you go home

Within the first week at Regina, a four-minute test is given and, if you fail, you go home. The campus is set up very similar to a university campus and there is instruction in PDT, firearms, weight training, running, driving unit, community policy and Aboriginal healing circles. Recruits have to “earn” pieces of their uniform so each time they pass a test, they are given another piece of that uniform until they have acquired it completely. Tests are rated in four categories: unacceptable, needs improvement, professional (required to pass) and superior. If you fail a test, you go home.

Eighty per cent of the training is physical. Once the cadets are given a detachment (they are informed where they will be going at 22 weeks), a trainer (field coach) is assigned to them for the first six months to familiarize them with the area and the various differences regarding Criminal Code, motor vehicle requirements and other information of that particular province.

Donovan provided a short film called “Rick Mercer Went to Depot” which, of course, was extremely entertaining, but did demonstrate just how physically fit graduates are required to be; “only the best and the brightest.”

- Submitted