British Columbia Royal Canadian Mounted Police

RCMP federal policing in British Columbia

"E" Division is the division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the province of British Columbia, Canada's westernmost province. It is the largest police body in the province, providing federal and provincial services throughout the province and policing all but 12 municipalities. In some urban areas, some municipalities have their own police forces while neighbouring ones contract with E Division. For example, Richmond is patrolled by E Division while neighbouring Vancouver has its own police force; both organizations contribute members and resources to various regional initiatives. E Division is the largest RCMP division, with 127 local detachments. Headquartered in Surrey, E Division is led by Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald. The Division has about 7,100 sworn members along with some 1,700 civilian members and public service employees. Of the sworn members, about 1,000 are assigned to federal sections, 2,600 to provincial policing units, and over 3,000 members serve in municipal policing. The force is assisted by about 1,200 volunteer Auxiliary Constables.

In BC, the RCMP operates at all three levels: federal, provincial and municipal in all but 11 communities. In this structure, they have the ability to mobilize large numbers of police officers from within the province and across Canada in the case of a crisis, and access a wide range of specialized units to tackle local and cross jurisdictional crimes. Through the integration of a number of specialized police services across BC, they have established an effective means by which to deal with cross jurisdictional crimes and provide specialized services. The BC RCMP is the lead agency for numerous integrated police units such as the Integrated Homicide Investigations Team, the Integrated Border Enforcement Team, the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team, and many others. These integrated teams are composed of police officers from the RCMP and municipal police departments such as Delta, Abbotsford and Vancouver.

The RCMP "E" Division Pipe Band is composed of volunteers and active duty officers posted to the division. It is based in Greater Vancouver and is currently one of the eight RCMP Pipe Bands currently active in Canada. It was formed in April 2006, by Drum Major Rob Smith, who had been lobbying to create the band since 1998, with an early trial band ceasing operations in 2000. The band made its debut appearance on 28 October 2006, at the Scottish Cultural Centre in Vancouver. In 2008, Hugh Peden took over as Pipe Major, being responsible for its overseas trip to Beijing, China in 2016.

Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit – a special task force created to help prevent criminal activity during the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics held in Vancouver, BC.

Like many large police organizations, E Division has had a number of high profile controversies. One of the most notable was the 2007 death of Robert Dziekański, who was tasered multiple times after being encountered by four E division officers despite being unarmed and being held alone in a secured room at Vancouver International Airport. Attracting international media attention, the investigation took a turn when a cellphone video, taken by a member of the public behind a glass wall and released weeks after the incident, contradicted portions of the reports given by the officers involved and also some RCMP spokespersons. In addition, several officers have been documented as engaging in misconducts in recent years. This has led to the federal government revamping disciplinary laws for RCMP members in 2012.