Mountie Camp in the Comox Valley interests students looking for a challenge or a career in policing.
“Have you talked to him about if he’s hurt or not? Obviously we have an issue here that he’s been drinking right?
That was Comox Valley RCMP Constable William Brown speaking to students at a simulated crash scene Tuesday.
It’s the type of scenario police deal with every day and 33 students at this year’s Mountie Camp are being taught many things this week including what to do when they arrive at the scene of an impaired driving crash.
“Yes, right the breath demand. Let’s do that because that needs to be done right away” added Brown.
“We’re trying to give them a snippet of what depot’s like so we have them up in the morning doing PT (physical training), they’re doing drill, they learned law today, they’re doing collision investigation now as well as impaired driving. And during the week we just get to showcase the resources we have within our valley” said Mountie Camp organizer, Constable Rob Gardner.
Students spent part of the time Tuesday in the classroom, in uniform learning about impaired driving and crash investigations.
“I’m interested in being a 911 dispatcher or maybe coming in a being a police officer as well” student Christina Matchett told CHEK News.
“I’ve always wanted to maybe join the RCMP so it was good to look into it so I have an opportunity to see it before I join it to see if I like it” said another student Cassie Harrison.
They also learn what it takes to deal with different agencies like fire departments and paramedics who each have different roles at an accident scene.
“Some of them just want to try it. There’s a lot of physical fitness we put them through, a lot of drill, they have long days, they’re up at 5 in the morning getting ready for PT at 6 and they go right until 10 o’clock at night so it’s long days. A lot of them just want to challenge themselves but there is a good selection of them that are interested in policing” added Gardner.
Mountie Camp began on Sunday and after several long days the students will graduate on Friday.
Dean Stoltz
