RCMP Marine unit and work on North Coast featured in recruiting notes

The RCMP is using the call of the sea for prospective recruits, highlighting the work of their Marine Units on the British Columbia Coast, with  a good portion of their presentation making note of the work of the Inkster in North Coast Waters.

Off the north coast of BC, a fisherman set up camp on a remote island. He’ll spend the winter out there. Police officers of the West Coast Marine Service, stationed in Prince Rupert, learned that the fisherman had received some mail. Officers collected the mail and boarded their floating detachment, the Inkster, and took the police vessel out to the isolated island to deliver his mail. 

"You’ll do that little extra because it goes a long way. We get a lot of reward out of doing this kind of thing. He’ll be a person that will always respect the RCMP and support the police who travel the coast on police vessels. " -- Sergeant John May, Marine Operations Support NCO. 

Posted to the RCMP website, the item is called Patrolling the Coast by Sea and provides a wide overview of the work of the Force's West Coast Marine Services.

The Inkster and an RCAF SAR helicopter at work
(from RCMP information page)

The scope of the use of the three vessels in service in British Columbia is noted as below:

There are three fully equipped patrol vessels: the Inkster, stationed in Prince Rupert and patrols the North Coast from Bella Bella, Bella Coola, north to Stewart, and west to Haida Gwaii. 

During the summer months, the Lindsay is stationed in Port Alberni and patrols the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Higgitt patrols the inside passage of Vancouver Island. 

WCMS is headquartered in Nanaimo, where there is permanent dock space. 

The three naval vessels are relatively small (the Inkster if 19.76 meters with the Lindsay and Higgitt being 17.6 meters) designed for coastal defence, border security, and law enforcement. 

There is a crew of four officers who spend seven days on the ship and seven days off. They can be at sea for those seven days without the need for refueling or replenishing food and supplies. 

WCMS also have civilian marine engineers who keep the vessels seaworthy.

The article provides a pretty extensive look at the work that the three vessels conducts in British Columbia  waters, framed as how service aboard is a unique element of the RCMP.

"It's a unique niche within the RCMP and it's something that appeals to a person who is adventurous and outdoors orientated. You're taking community policing to a whole new level because you might be visiting people that live in a little community and there's only five or six people that live there. -- Ken Burton, who spent 15 years as a member of the WCMS

The full article, which is well worth a read, can be explored further here.

More notes on the work of Emergency Responders across the Northwest and along the BC coast line can be reviewed through our archive page.