Assiniboine’s Police Studies grads exempt from writing RCMP entrance exam

Graduates of the Police Studies program at Assiniboine Community College will now be able to apply to join the RCMP without writing an entrance exam.

“This is terrific news for those considering the Police Studies program at Assiniboine because graduates of this program do not have to write that exam,” said Acting Sergeant Russ Paterson, lead instructor in Police Studies. “They can go right into the competition and further in the process.”

A/Sgt. Paterson notes that the change gives Police Studies students an incentive to do well in the program. “It gives them a leg up in the hiring process. I’m thrilled. It’s a feather in the cap of Assiniboine,” he added.

Recruits will still need to fulfill all other requirements of the RCMP recruitment and training process, including a hearing and vision test, criminal record and other security checks, and passing a polygraph test.

Bruce Klassen, chairperson of Human Services at Assiniboine, credited Paterson for initiating the process of earning the exemption and the “heavy lifting” to see it through.

A/Sgt. Paterson also gave credit to Constable Chris Joven, a recruiter with the RCMP “D” Division in Winnipeg.

“We’ve come out to the school a few times. We did career presentations there. We looked at their program. We felt that the program was one that should be accredited, to be exempt from the RCMP exam,” Const. Joven said.

“The program is excellent. It gives them a good basis for training and helps them prepare to be police officers,” he said.

Graduates of Assiniboine’s Police Studies program have careers with police services across Manitoba, including Brandon, Rivers, Morden, Ste. Anne, Springfield, Victoria Beach, Winkler and the Manitoba First Nations Police Service.

Assiniboine is the only post-secondary institution in Manitoba to offer a Police Studies program administered by the department of education and training and authorized by Manitoba Justice.

In the last four years, three Police Studies graduates have begun careers with the RCMP and three are recruits in training now.

They became members of the force through the previous hiring process, that included writing the entrance exam. The Police Studies program includes a field trip each year to the RCMP training depot in Regina.

“All of our applicants that are graduates of the program, including those that have gone on to the RCMP, have all done extremely well. They just had an extra step in the past they had to take or an extra hoop they had to jump through,” A/Sgt. Paterson said.

The Police Studies program is an innovative and intensive eight-month certificate program that is the first of its kind in Manitoba.

Facilities used by the program include the college’s Public Safety Training Centre, a simulation and training environment in which students practise crime scene investigation, identifying and seizing evidence, conducting interviews, arrest tactics and de-escalating potentially violent situations.

Photo: Inspector Dan Almas, left, of “D” Division, RCMP, inspects Police Studies graduates at the program’s 2018 graduation ceremony. Graduates of the program at Assiniboine Community College will no longer have to write an entrance exam to begin the recruitment process at the RCMP.