Why are so many places in Canada talking about ditching the RCMP?

This is the third part in a special Star series looking at Canada's national police force and what some say are the existential challenges it is facing.

EDMONTON-When Ron Zazulak joined the RCMP, it was seen as the big leagues" of policing, he says.

He doesn't think that's the case anymore. And there are indications he's not alone in his opinion.

Zazulak spent a career with the Mounties after joining the force in the 1960s. When he retired in 2000, he bought a farm with his wife and spent years living in rural Alberta near St. Lina, where they bordered three different RCMP detachment areas - the closest one being in St. Paul, 40 minutes away.

Over the years, neighbours would express their concerns about crime.

Since 2017, Zazulak has, of his own initiative, spent time looking at statistics and interviewing residents in and around that area, many of them farmers who have been victims of property crime. He says too often, he's heard victims describe a disappointing response from the Mounties.

If you lose a battery or if you lose some gas or somebody takes your Ski-Doo, it was kind of a So what? Just claim insurance and everything will be looked after.'

And that wasn't the way the RCMP operated when I joined in 1969."

The concerns were shared by many of his neighbours, some of whom lived an hour away from the nearest RCMP detachment. He said the Mounties just didn't seem to have the resources to deal with rural crime.

It's been an issue throughout Alberta for years, and one the governing United Conservatives have seized upon. Rural crime is one of the reasons being cited as the government publicly mulls the creation of an Alberta provincial police force.

Alberta, however, is only one of the jurisdictions currently reviewing its relationship with the Mounties. Canada's national police force is facing rumblings of discontent from across the country right now. Some of that pushback is seen as political. But there are other factors at play, too, in a post-George Floyd world where better governance and more transparency are being demanded, and amid calls from some quarters to defund the police."

In British Columbia, an all-party panel of politicians recommended a provincial police force be set up there. It said that transformative change" is needed to tackle racism and have more accountability and better community policing.

Even in Saskatchewan, home to the RCMP's main training depot, there are frustrations. The province has put forward a plan to set up a marshal service that would supplement the RCMP and has even signalled it may reduce its funding for the force over the federal government's planned gun restrictions. The marshals service was announced after the province decided it needed more visible, active policing," according to Public Safety Minister Christine Tell.

At the municipal level, Grande Prairie, Alta., is considering setting up its own city service, and Surrey, B.C., the only municipality of its size in Canada without its own police service, is caught up in a years-long drama over a bid to replace the RCMP with its own force.

Nova Scotia has heard calls to replace much of the service the RCMP provides with a regional policing model. Last year, New Brunswick's public safety minister, Ted Flemming, said that province could consider launching a provincial police force as well.

In the eyes of some, it's a pivotal time for the RCMP - one that requires change.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a sprawling organization that counts 30,000 members at 700 physical locations and has duties that range from anti-terrorism activities to community policing.

The organization may simply not be nimble enough to respond to modern policing needs, said Curt Griffiths, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University in B.C.

To change the organizational DNA ... would be a long slog," he said. It would have to start, like, right now."

Baked into its structure are some fundamental flaws that Griffiths said hold it back from real change.

Officers in command of detachments around Canada are often hindered in responding to community needs by the fact that the highest levels of the RCMP are based in Ottawa, he said.

If a detachment commander wants to set up a community safety officer program, for example, they may not be able to do it if national headquarters says no, Griffiths said. Recruiting is also a challenge, with members often getting stationed in far-flung places and having no real desire to stay and integrate into the community, he added.

This hurts the service's ability to hire people from diverse backgrounds who might be able to better serve an area they're in for a long time.

That's one piece of the battle happening in Surrey.

The price tag of change

The move away from the RCMP toward a Surrey Police Service has been happening for years. It originally had strong support from the council, but a new mayor was elected last year on a platform promising to keep the RCMP, even though the new force had already been put together, becoming the second-largest municipal service in British Columbia.

The city has a large South Asian population and is likely better served by police officers who can speak the languages and forge connections with that community, said Griffiths. He said he thinks it's easier for the municipal police service to hire people from that background who are likely to stay and give back to the community in other ways.

Of course, the issue of cost always comes up, and that tends to weigh in the RCMP's favour.

It is estimated that sticking with the RCMP in Surrey, for example, would save it $235 million over five years. The cost of 734 officers with the Surrey Police Service would be $249,460 per officer, while each Mountie would be $205,990, according to a report released last month.

It's a major criticism of the proposal in Alberta as well, where talk of moving away from the RCMP and toward a provincial service has been steeped in political posturing. The move is seen by some in Alberta as a way to grab more autonomy from Ottawa.

A report in 2021 pegged the price of setting up a provincial service at $735 million per year alongside a startup cost of $366 million. Currently, Alberta pays about $500 million annually for the RCMP with the federal government kicking in $170 million. Rural municipalities have been loud critics of the proposal - first championed by Premier Jason Kenney and continued under the new premier, Danielle Smith - partly due to its cost.

But Griffiths says not all costs can be calculated on a spreadsheet.

RCMP officers - and it's not their fault; it's the way the system's set up - they're just passing through," he said. There's a cost to that in terms of community policing, community engagement, knowledge of the community."

After graduating, a new RCMP member is usually placed in a rural area in Canada. Every year, the RCMP relocates about 2,200 members.

The RCMP would need to give its detachment commanders much more freedom in responding to their community's specific needs, address the many reports around fostering a toxic workplace, and reform its policies to make it more transparent if it wants to regain public trust, said Griffiths.

Zazulak, the retired RCMP officer, said that in rural communities, there's a perception the Mounties are focusing on serious crimes, such as murder or assault, and ignoring things such as property crime because they can't be everywhere at once.

His interviews with residents in eastern Alberta revealed that many were repeatedly victimized by crimes of opportunity and took to setting up security cameras and gates as protection. Some armed themselves and got dogs.

Zazulak said a provincial police force might better serve communities such as the one he lived in if the RCMP were focused on other, more serious crimes, such as cross-border drug trafficking.

The shortage of human beings they have'

While no decision has been made on a provincial police service, Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis, a former Calgary police officer, brings up rural crime when asked about the RCMP's future in the province.

Some of the challenges that the RCMP face right now, and it is absolutely no secret, is the shortage of human beings that they have," he said during an interview with the Star.

If the RCMP were to find its way back into the good graces of provinces around the country, it would take the political will" needed for change from federal politicians, said Ellis. It boils down to trust and public trust," he said.

The vision that I want to see is that Alberta can become a role model in policing," Ellis added. I don't want the police to be seen as an arm of the state. I want them to be seen as an extension of the community."

Last summer, the head of Alberta's RCMP, Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki, said the province's signalling that it wanted a provincial police force had been a distraction for members for two years.

Quite frankly, it's been very disruptive and distracting for all our employees. Our staff are concerned about their futures and the futures of their partners and their families," Zablocki told The Canadian Press.

I'll say it's impacted the morale of the Alberta RCMP as well, and I will say it has also impacted the trust and confidence that we see from our communities in those relationships, which is very critical."

He said support from the public, as well as from most municipalities, shows how well respected the RCMP is and he hopes Albertans will have a say in any final decision.

Over the years, the RCMP has had black marks against it build up. There have been reports of harassment and toxicity within the workforce, and the response to the Nova Scotia mass shooting in 2020 sparked concerns over the police force's capabilities in that province.

But the force has both a long tradition and many supporters.

On a frigid day in Edmonton last month, David Neufeld, president of the Union of Safety and Justice Employees, stood outside the RCMP's K Division headquarters to show support for the force as the province continued to explore replacing it.

His union represents some 18,000 members, many of whom work in support roles with the RCMP. Some of them joined Neufeld in Edmonton holding signs that read Keep Alberta Safe" and urged the province to keep the RCMP.

He called for resources that would go toward a new police force to be reinvested into the RCMP instead.

We believe that that would be a serious misstep of this government," Neufeld said. We know that the infrastructure that is currently in place here in the province of Alberta needs to be further enhanced - it does not need to be stripped down and burnt to the ground and rebuilt."

Since the death of George Floyd, the Black man who was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, there's been heightened attention on police. Concerns about transparency and governance abound and there are questions about proper oversight, said Griffiths.

We're back to collaboration and collaborative partnerships with the police and mental health services and social services," said Griffiths.

It's a whole new model of policing and the question is, can the Mounties adapt to the new policing reality?"

With files from The Canadian Press

Kieran Leavitt is an Edmonton-based political reporter for the Toronto Star. Follow him on Twitter: @kieranleavitt