The RCMP’s own in-house research shows trust in the Mounties has fallen almost 20 points since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to documents obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter. Older Canadians generally still trust the federal police, which the report reasons is because they were “taught growing up to show respect for RCMP officers.”“Focus groups elicited rich and detailed information that helps us understand the reasons behind the Canadian public’s decreasing level of trust in the RCMP,” said the report, called Canadians’ Perceptions Of The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. While most Canadians recall “the image of a Mountie on horseback with the symbolic red serge and Stetson uniform,” only 58% expressed “trust and confidence in the RCMP’s contribution to public safety.”In 2019, 74% of Canadians had confidence in the RCMP. “Some were more inclined to trust individual RCMP officers but were generally distrustful of the RCMP as a whole,” wrote researchers. “Often these participants had encounters with officers who displayed helpfulness, professionalism and were able to de-escalate or handle situations sensitively.”“These positive experiences were contrary to their pre-existing negative views of the RCMP or the negative stories about the RCMP in the media,” researchers found. Canadians least likely to trust the Mounties included indigenous groups, black people and rural residents who had “low levels of confidence in their local RCMP detachment’s ability to respond to calls in a timely manner.”The study, contracted to Ipsos by the RCMP, consisted of questionnaires from 26 focus groups at a taxpayers’ cost of $236,927. “The theme of accountability was prevalent in most groups,” said the report. “This was discussed primarily in relation to abuse of authority, cases of workplace harassment and mismanagement.”The poor rating on accountability followed RCMP enforcement of the Freedom Convoy bank accounts freeze, a $1.1 billion class action lawsuit over alleged harassment of members and a public inquiry into RCMP misconduct in the 2020 Nova Scotia shooting rampage that left 22 dead.MPs on the Commons Ethics Committee twice censured the RCMP at the time as evasive and uncooperative in concealing information from Parliament. The committee in 2022 faulted the Mounties for withholding evidence over their use of facial recognition technology and spyware.“The committee would like to note the lack of cooperation shown by the RCMP,” MPs wrote in a report called On-Device Investigative Tools Used By The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. “The committee is not satisfied.”
The RCMP’s own in-house research shows trust in the Mounties has fallen almost 20 points since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to documents obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter. Older Canadians generally still trust the federal police, which the report reasons is because they were “taught growing up to show respect for RCMP officers.”“Focus groups elicited rich and detailed information that helps us understand the reasons behind the Canadian public’s decreasing level of trust in the RCMP,” said the report, called Canadians’ Perceptions Of The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. While most Canadians recall “the image of a Mountie on horseback with the symbolic red serge and Stetson uniform,” only 58% expressed “trust and confidence in the RCMP’s contribution to public safety.”In 2019, 74% of Canadians had confidence in the RCMP. “Some were more inclined to trust individual RCMP officers but were generally distrustful of the RCMP as a whole,” wrote researchers. “Often these participants had encounters with officers who displayed helpfulness, professionalism and were able to de-escalate or handle situations sensitively.”“These positive experiences were contrary to their pre-existing negative views of the RCMP or the negative stories about the RCMP in the media,” researchers found. Canadians least likely to trust the Mounties included indigenous groups, black people and rural residents who had “low levels of confidence in their local RCMP detachment’s ability to respond to calls in a timely manner.”The study, contracted to Ipsos by the RCMP, consisted of questionnaires from 26 focus groups at a taxpayers’ cost of $236,927. “The theme of accountability was prevalent in most groups,” said the report. “This was discussed primarily in relation to abuse of authority, cases of workplace harassment and mismanagement.”The poor rating on accountability followed RCMP enforcement of the Freedom Convoy bank accounts freeze, a $1.1 billion class action lawsuit over alleged harassment of members and a public inquiry into RCMP misconduct in the 2020 Nova Scotia shooting rampage that left 22 dead.MPs on the Commons Ethics Committee twice censured the RCMP at the time as evasive and uncooperative in concealing information from Parliament. The committee in 2022 faulted the Mounties for withholding evidence over their use of facial recognition technology and spyware.“The committee would like to note the lack of cooperation shown by the RCMP,” MPs wrote in a report called On-Device Investigative Tools Used By The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. “The committee is not satisfied.”
