The Redcliff RCMP detachment is back to full strength for the first time in about a year, even as a federal audit warns Mounties are short on thousands of officers across the country.
The new constables started in early April after two openings had sat empty for roughly a year. The detachment is now back to its full strength of one commander, two corporal supervisors and 12 constables.
Redcliff was one of 21 spots filled across Alberta in March from a class of new graduates at Depot Division, the RCMP training school in Regina. Other detachments getting officers included Cardston, Lloydminster, Piikani Nation, Provost and Wainwright.
“We recognize that police visibility and staffing levels remain key concerns for the communities we serve,” said deputy commissioner Trevor Daroux, commanding officer of the Alberta RCMP, in a March news release. He said the force was working on “removing barriers” in its hiring process.
The Alberta RCMP also runs a relief team out of Cochrane and Leduc that fills in when detachments are short staffed. The force says 65 deployments are planned across 16 Alberta attachments.
The hires came just after federal auditor general Karen Hogan released a report on March 23 that found the RCMP needed at least 3,400 more frontline officers as of September 2025. The report said the force hasn’t hired enough officers to meet needs.
The Alberta vacancy rate was 8.6 per cent. In Saskatchewan, it was 13.5 per cent. Both are above the RCMP’s own threshold of 7 per cent. Nine of 11 provinces and territories that use the RCMP were over that 7 per cent line.
“Chronic shortages of frontline police officers make it difficult to deliver policing services across Canada,” Hogan said in a news release.
The audit found the RCMP missed its own target processing time for 97 per cent of applications. On average, a successful applicant waits 446 days to receive an offer to attend the Depot.
On March 20 the RCMP released a new National Recruitment Strategy for 2026-2029. The plan aims to cut wait times to six months and train 1,600 cadets a year.
Medicine Hat itself is policed by the Medicine Hat Police Service. But nearby towns, including Redcliff, Bow Island, Cypress County and Maple Creek, Sask., rely on RCMP detachments for frontline response.

By Brook Wagner, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Original Published on May 28, 2026 at 21:31

This item reprinted with permission from   Medicine Hat News   Medicine Hat, Alberta
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