The RCMP struggles to recruit First Nation, Metis, and Inuit officers, and Indigenous officer retention rates are lower than average. The RCMP-Indigenous Co-Development, Collaboration, and Accountability (RICCA) office partnered with KES to host conversations both with RCMP officers and Indigenous community members to shed light on what the RCMP can do to better support Indigenous applicants and members. KES was called on to develop and deliver an engagement strategy that overcame many barriers, including: • Hearing first-hand the reality of policing remote and Northern communities • Understanding community needs so the project could contextualize the ramifications of low recruitment and retainment of Indigenous RCMP officers • Language barriers, particularly when engaging with Inuit communities • Confidentiality and solidarity across members and departments at the RCMP
KES knew that the only way to deliver an effective engagement strategy for this project was to divide the engagement into two distinct groups of participants: current and former RCMP employees, and community members who live in areas policed by the RCMP. Making space for both voices throughout the engagement allowed us to hear stories and solutions from two diverse and differently knowledgeable perspectives. Our strategy centred around:
KES hosted in-person engagements in remote and Northern communities. We spent several days in each community we visited to ensure we had ample time to speak with a number of different organizations, community members, and employees.
Having conversations with participants in advance of our arrival in communities allowed us to accommodate linguistic and accessibility needs in each meeting, including providing interpretation into Inuktitut during engagement sessions.
Securing and promoting the “buy-in” from senior members of the RCMP encouraged current members to participate in conversations and share their stories and insights.
Separating community dialogues from RCMP dialogues to make space for authentic stories and emotions regarding policing shortfalls and missteps and challenges in the community.
Every aspect of this engagement sprouted from KES’s commitment to two-eyed seeing. It was vitally important that this engagement included both RCMP members voices and community perspectives, and the agendas for these conversations had to be unique to the demographic we were engaging with while also fitting into an integrated final report.
Ultimately, we reported on the results of this project from our two-eyed seeing foundation, breaking our recommendations into categories that included:
These categories make it simple to determine where action items and ideas originated from and allow decision makers to see issues and challenges from the perspective of each distinct demographic.
