Once seen as a crisis, the RCMP's recruitment numbers are starting to turn around

The RCMP's power to raise young Mounties was, non all that long agone, seen as a crisis. But new numbers suggest the national police force is starting to turn that around.

"I think actually things are looking very promising," said RCMP assistant commissioner Adam Palmer, head of national recruitment transformation, in a recent interview. 

But it's unclear if the upward trend will be enough for provinces and municipalities who use the RCMP as their local police and who have grown increasingly concerned by high vacancy rates.

Staffing crunches across the country have been one of the most pressing issues facing the national police force, which is responsible for boots-on-the-ground policing in most provinces, the three territories and more than 150 municipalities across the country.

It's also responsible for federal policing, an increasingly in-demand wing that investigates cases including foreign interference, organized crime and counterterrorism. 

In 2023 the Management Advisory Board, an oversight body that advises the RCMP commissioner, warned that if the law enforcement agency doesn't up the pace of recruitment, its ability to maintain public safety would be threatened.

"It's been all hands on deck to try and get us to a place where we're turning those numbers around," Palmer said.

The biggest spike is in the number of applications. During the 2022-23 fiscal year, the RCMP received 9,698 applications, which more than doubled in 2024-25 to 20,839.

Since the beginning of this fiscal year, the RCMP received 15,453 applications and Palmer said they're on track to exceed 20,000 again. 

But that doesn't translate into thousands of more Mounties.

Last fiscal, 1,037 candidates were offered a spot at the RCMP Training Academy in Regina, known as the "depot," and 895 graduated. That was a bump from a year earlier, when 639 candidates were offered a spot and 622 made it to graduation day.

While many applications are rejected because the person either doesn't meet the basic requirements or aren't a good character fit, others abandon their application because it takes about 400 days to get through the process, said Palmer. 

"We are not lowering our standards," he said. "But we need to be able to process [applicants] more efficiently and effectively."

Palmer, who became a Mountie last year after serving with the Vancouver Police Department, said the RCMP is focusing on how to get more officers trained and into postings.

After bringing in outside eyes and looking at how other law enforcement agencies in the international Five Eyes intelligence alliance recruit, the RCMP is launching a pilot in British Columbia and Yukon next week focusing on more face time with potential recruits and streamlining the onboarding process.

The goal, says Palmer, is to see about 1,600 people graduate every year and head into the regions — or in RCMP terms 50 full troops, made up of 32 cadets, annually.

"I think with this refined processing system that we're bringing in place, we're going to get there," he said.

The RCMP's ability to raise its recruitment numbers and maintain them will be closely monitored by the provinces and territories when contracts are renegotiated in the coming years.

The current agreements — which see the provinces and territories pay for 70 per cent of the contract and the federal government covering the rest — are set to expire in 2032. There's been mounting pressure to get some clarity about Ottawa's direction going forward and whether the RCMP will be properly funded and resourced to meet expectations.

Some municipalities, citing resources and staffing, have already opted to replace the RCMP for their own law enforcement agencies. The Alberta government is also exploring a transition to an Alberta Police Service.

Ottawa also faces calls to make sure federal policing is better resourced.

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