True and Fascinating Canadian History
A Mystery of the Mounties:
And Help From A Hockey Stick
by J. J. Healy
Contemporary organizational theorists never imagined the impact of change in the modern workplace of 2020. In the last couple years, bureaucratic structures have been turned upside down and the traditional notion of going to the office has been replaced by thousands of employees working from home. Downtown office space sits empty. In light of these earth shaking changes, economists have already issued warnings to the corporate world that companies must learn to adapt and learn quickly or evaporate and die.
As a police organization, the RCMP is not exempt from change, and it is already taking place and is very noticeable. The
RCMP Headquarters in Ottawa has essentially been vacated due to the pandemic and the virus has forced RCMP employees to stay
home and work on-line with their computer. Where there were once thousands of people in RCMP Headquarters, since the virus
outbreak the number of employees has dwindled to about 100.
There can be no doubt that hundreds of lives were saved by the RCMP's ability to adapt almost overnight to the severity of the pandemic. But, whether or not the RCMP is capable of adapting quickly, and at all times, or to every situation it faces is very much open to debate. For one thing, there is a huge difference in the work of administrators in RCMP Headquarters and the risks which constables face every day on Canadian streets.
The day to day work of any police constable is identified by frequent risk, physical overexertion, hourly hazards and potential death either to a victim who requires help or to the police officer. Knowing the potential risks of its mandate and the personal dangers that arise from its operational and enforcement activities, the RCMP may be the single organization in Canada which is expected to adapt very quickly and out of absolute necessity since lives actually depends on whether the RCMP gets the job done rightly or not. And fast.
In the case of the RCMP, adaptation begins with a positive mindset. It starts at the very top from the RCMP Commissioner down through every employee and it permeates through every rank. As a commodity, learning to adapt must be purchased by every single person. View it as win-win. Leaders must be open to honest criticism, and the criticism must lead to positive change and renewal. Subordinates must believe that their ideas make a difference, and that alternative solutions have merit. A new solution, however strange may lead to lives being saved. Consider the following situation that could arise unexpectedly or at any time in the daily and hazardous role of a police officer.
Suppose that a warning is broadcast to all RCMP constables that an armed suspect is known to be driving a copycat RCMP cruiser on provincial highways. Given the unusual circumstances of the broadcast, the urgency and the probability that the copycat police car cannot be distinguished from an authentic RCMP cruiser, one idea that might be proposed is to immediately change the external look of every authentic RCMP cruiser on the route and in the vicinity of the suspect. Almost any idea might work.
Effective communications are vital. Telecoms must be actively engaged in the emergency, be assertive, well versed in procedures, and be prepared to make an announcement. Telecoms must broadcast to all RCMP to immediately change the outward appearance of every cruiser and distinguish every RCMP cruiser by one or more of these strategies: employ all 4-way flashers, or employ only high beams, or drive with an open rear trunk, or hang a patrol jacket out the rear window or make use of a hockey stick on the side of every cruiser waving a visible flag. Telecoms must broadcast to all constables that any patrol cars sporting none of these visible signs are to be followed, but avoided and not stopped until RCMP back-up are in place. Whether or not a hockey stick or any other similar tactics have every been used in a case of copycat police cruiser may well be classified as a mystery.
There are valuable benefits to police organizations as well as to individual police officers when they learn how to change and adapt to change. First, a police officer learns that with adaptation comes flexibility and a more positive mind set. Opportunities open up. A police officer becomes more helpful and one's personality becomes that of a friend rather than an adversary.
The goal of any police officer is to stay alive under dangerous circumstances, and to save the lives of others in the community. One might be ridiculed for employing a strange tactic such as taping a hockey stick to the side of an RCMP cruiser, but a police officer can stay alive by quickly adapting to change and by immediately minimizing whatever risks which one might face.
That’s the lesson and a gentle reminder for all police officers.
The end.
Reporting from the Fort,
J. J. Healy
May 20, 2020
