More than six years after the shooting deaths of four RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe, Alta., stunned a nation and sparked calls for better police protection, the force has not managed to get the hard body armour that can stop long-gun ammunition to most of its front-line officers.
Nine of the 14 RCMP officers slain by weapons fire in recent years – including the four who died in one of the deadliest chapters in the force’s history – were killed with rifles or shotguns, which are at least three times more powerful than pistols.
The force has 19,000 regular members who are required to wear soft body armour on duty, but those vests can stop only handgun fire. So far, only 500 hard body armour vests have been issued, prompting many rank-and-file members to buy them with their own money.
“We have to be sneaky about it,” said a 26-year-old constable from the Prairies who asked not to be identified because Mounties are not supposed to use unofficial gear.
The constable said he spent $600 for what are called “Level 4” ceramic plates to protect him on patrol in the rural areas and small towns where rifles and shotguns are more common than handguns. He got them online from a company that resells Israeli military gear.
“It seems like they’re stalling,” he said of the RCMP delays. “There’s a fair amount of frustration.”
Kevin Brosseau, the RCMP’s director-general of contracting, said he has a simple message for the men and women whose lives are on the line:
“We understand your frustration, and we’re working as hard as we can to provide the protection.”
In the aftermath of the 2005 Mayerthorpe killings, internal RCMP reports and external inquires recommended much wider availability and use of hard-plated armour.
About nine months after Mayerthorpe, the RCMP material design and specification unit recommended the force “adopt a rifle plate for use by general duty members.”
That recommendation was backed in 2006 by the RCMP hazardous occurrence investigating team looking into the killings. In February, 2007, a federal government health and safety report echoed those concerns.
But in its official response at that time, the RCMP would say only that it was “evaluating a variety of possibilities to provide protection against long-gun fire.”
It took three more years before the first major shipment of hard body armour.
“There are concerns out there regarding the delays in issuing this equipment,” acknowledged Inspector Jeff Hunter of the RCMP’s critical incident program, one of the senior administrators in charge of procuring the new vests. “But it’s not as easy as going into Wal-Mart and buying these off the shelf.”
Insp. Hunter said research is “the most time-consuming” factor in the process to determine what product best suits the force’s needs.
“It has to go through stringent testing,” he said.
Another obstacle has been securing an adequate supply of hard body armour from U.S. manufacturers – the only ones that make Level 4 plates – because they are committed first to meet the demands of the U.S. military.
The RCMP say 550 hard body-armour units were finally shipped out last October, mostly to officers in the “V” and “G” divisions that cover Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
An additional 500 vests are expected over the summer and – if a contract tender in August is successful – another 2,000 will arrive in the next year, bringing the total number of hard body-armour units to just over 3,000.
Pete Broccolo recently retired as an RCMP constable after 35 years on the force and now moderates a Web-chat forum devoted in part to “purchasing body armour.” He said there is no way to get an accurate count, but he estimated that hundreds of RCMP officers may have bought their own protection.
