Officer shortage in Thompson concerning, but impact ‘minimal’ says RCMP

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A new report shows there are more than a dozen vacancies at the police force tasked with servicing northern Manitoba’s largest city.

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In their April policing report, which was presented to the City of Thompson mayor and council last week, Thompson RCMP said of the 38 job positions at the department, 13 are currently vacant.

Those vacancies include leadership and constable positions at the detachment that serves the community that is home to more than 13,000 people, and has consistently been at the top of the list in Canada when it comes to levels of violent crime in recent years.

Currently of the 38 available positions, there is one vacancy for inspector and one for staff sergeant, while there are a total of seven vacant constable positions, and four vacant clerical support positions.

The report also shows vacancy rates have been on the rise at Thompson RCMP, as a report from the same time period in 2023 showed just two vacant positions.

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For years, Thompson has consistently ranked at or near the top of all communities in Canada for levels of violent crime, and on multiple occasions since 2017 has been ranked as the most violent community in Canada by a Maclean’s magazine ranking system.

According to the report, overall calls for service in Thompson have gone down with 5,441 calls between January 1 and April 30 of this year, down from 5,936 in the same period last year, but calls are up for drug possession and trafficking, breaking and entering, theft, sexual assault and public disorder.

Drug possession and trafficking calls saw the biggest increase from this year to last year, as the report showed a 48% jump in calls from the same time period last year.

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Thompson city councillor Duncan Wong called the vacancy rate at Thompson RCMP “concerning,” because Thompson residents want to have confidence that there will be police patrolling the streets, and that police will have the resources to deal with the calls they get as promptly as possible.

“These numbers will concern a lot of people, because they are going to wonder, ‘if I call, am I going to get service?’” Wong said.

Wong is also concerned because of the amount of public intoxication and intimidating behaviour he says residents in Thompson see, especially in the downtown core, and how that can lead to a sense of unease for some.

“We’ve still got a lot of public drunkenness, we have disturbances and people just not feeling safe on the streets,” Wong said. “A lot of times the streets just look like a big party out here, and that’s intimidating when people are just trying to shop or get to work.”

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Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook said she does not believe levels of service from RCMP will suffer in Thompson because of the vacancy rate, but she said a lot more is going to be asked of those who are currently filling positions at Thompson RCMP.

“What this means is you’re going to see more overtime and officers working a lot more long hours, they will be stretched thin, and we don’t want to have people burning out,” Smook said.

She added she’d like to see vacancy rates go down as we enter what she said is often a busy summer season in Thompson for police, and as the population grows and fluctuates in the summer months.

“We know it’s a busy time of year for police and we will have lots of outsiders coming in, so it’s definitely in everyone’s interest to get those numbers up.”

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In an email, RCMP spokesperson Tara Seel said although the 13 vacancies may be concerning for some, she said that number often fluctuates and can change quickly.

“With the nature of our day-to-day operations, any numbers that you use to represent vacancy rates are only a snapshot in time,” Seel said. “With transfers, promotions, retirements, new recruits, the numbers change frequently. Also, not all recorded vacancies are bodies not in place. In some cases, those are blocked positions.”

She said RCMP also work when vacancy numbers in communities are high to continue offering the same levels of service.

“The RCMP manages any vacancies to ensure the impact is felt in a minimal way,” Seel said. “One way we do this is by working with schedules to have shifts starting and ending and overlapping as they need to, in order to have the needed amount of officers on shift in an area that has a vacancy.

“We will also mobilize resources from outside detachments when required to ensure that all staffing levels are appropriate.”

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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