RCMP Air Services growing to meet operational demands
Operations
Special Constable Colin Gunn has been an RCMP pilot in the North and Inuit Nunangat for almost 20 years and calls it his dream job
Image by RCMP
September 12, 2024
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Special Constable Colin Gunn was apprehensive about accepting a pilot's job with the RCMP. Growing up in the Inuit community of Frobisher Bay, Nunavut, he had heard stories about negative interactions with the police.
"I'd heard about some communities with good relations with the RCMP and others where the situation was pretty tense," Gunn says from his home in Iqaluit. "I really didn't know what to expect."
Almost 20 years and 3.3 million kilometres of flying later, Gunn is living his dream job. "I was surprised by how eager everyone was to help me settle in. It's an amazing group of people to work with. I look back on it now and think, 'Wow, I really did luck out.'"
Flying in the North and Inuit Nunangat comes with a unique set of challenges usually related to the weather. "When it gets below -35 degrees with the wind blowing, those can be tough days," Gunn says.
Local weather information can be hard to access, as updated reports are not typically available outside of regular business hours. "If I'm flying into a community, I'll radio ahead to the RCMP members, ask them to step outside, and eyeball what the weather looks like," he says. "But I've been flying up here long enough to know when it's safe, and when not to take the chance."
Gunn is one of two RCMP pilots who fly a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft based in Nunavut. The plane operates seven days a week, mostly shuttling prisoners and RCMP personnel between communities. It's one of the busiest planes in the RCMP fleet, which consists of 22 fixed-wing and nine rotary-wing aircraft at 19 bases across all provinces and territories.
Taking flight
RCMP Air Services is made up of 180 personnel, including pilots, aircraft-maintenance engineers, tactical-flight officers, and flight co-ordinators. The Services first got off the ground in 1937, under the leadership of Commissioner Sir James Howden MacBrien, an avid pilot. Then known as Air Division, its primary role was people transport.
The original four aircraft were based in Moncton, New Brunswick, and deployed along the East Coast, working with the RCMP Marine Section on preventive duties.
Increasingly, violent crime and changing expectations have triggered a shift in priorities, according to Mark Penney, director general of the RCMP Air Services Branch.
Operational support
"Critical incidents — like active shooters, mass casualty events, and high-speed chases — call for a larger police response," says Penney, adding that his team has been called to move tactical units to the scene more quickly and provide operational and surveillance support from the air.
He points to the 2022 mass stabbing on the James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby town of Weldon, Saskatchewan, that left 11 people dead and 18 injured. RCMP aircraft, equipped with sophisticated cameras and integrated mapping systems, supported searches during the four-day manhunt.
"We also played an important transport role, flying in operational personnel from other divisions, specialized equipment, and victim services specialists to support the victims' families," says Penney.
Future expansion
Looking ahead, he says the unit's priorities are to increase the number of personnel and aircraft to meet increasing calls for rapid operational response, along with greater investments in technology — especially drones. "It's a technology that lends itself to border enforcement and patrols in both urban and rural settings, since they can stay in the air for long periods of time and, eventually, will be flown from literally anywhere," Penney explains.
As for Special Constable Gunn, life as an RCMP pilot is about as good as it gets. "I can't see myself doing anything else," he says. "It's what I was born to do."
