The trial of a man charged with shooting an RCMP officer who was on solo duty in a remote Arctic community is scheduled to begin Monday.
No matter how the first-degree murder case against Pingoatuk (Ping) Kolola turns out, the death of Const. Douglas Scott has already helped changed policing in the North, says Chief Supt. Steve McVarnock, head of the RCMP in Nunavut.
"No community is left with one police officer in that community alone," he says.
McVarnock is relatively new to his job as the territory's top Mountie, but not to the Arctic. He first came north in 1982, back when Iqaluit was still called Frobisher Bay.
Things were different then.
"It was very common to be by yourself when your partner went out (of town)," McVarnock said. "Usually they would go out for three or four weeks at a time and you would be it for that community.
"You work, live and breathe it 24-7. I've been in those situations, when a plane comes in and there's alcohol on the plane and you know you're going to be called out. I've laid in my bed in blue trousers and a white T-shirt with my gear at the door, staring at the phone.
"I just knew it was going to ring."
That was the situation facing Scott in November 2007, when he was fatally shot while responding alone to a drunk-driving call that came into the two-person detachment in Kimmirut, Nunavut.
It was only a month after Const. Christopher Worden, 30, had been shot and killed as he responded on his own to a call early in the morning in the community of Hay River, N.W.T. Emrah Bulatci has since been convicted of first-degree murder in Worden's death.
Within weeks of the two deaths, the RCMP instituted a new backup policy. Mounties attending any call with a threat of violence now must travel in pairs. Off-duty officers have to back up anyone working alone.
McVarnock says the North has changed since he was walking the beat. The safety of solo officers is no longer a given.
"We didn't have the level of alcohol abuse or violence that's now experienced in some communities," says McVarnock, who adds that Nunavut's crime rate is seven times that of southern Canada.
"Violence has escalated over the past decade and our organization has evolved as a result."
Even before Worden and Scott were killed, Nunavut RCMP had created a pool of officers that could be flown in from Iqaluit to back up detachments. Since then, eight new officers have been hired at an annual cost of $2.4 million. Yukon and the Northwest Territories have each made a similar move at similar expense.
McVarnock says the force is also looking for ways to add an extra officer to at least some of its 15 two-officer detachments in Nunavut. Southern officers can be brought North for 30-day relief postings.
"We have actually attracted many members to northern duty as a result of that program," he says. "I refer to it as a 30-day test drive."
The money also makes northern policing attractive. Because members in two-officer detachments are on call even when they're off shift, they are paid at some level virtually around the clock and can earn up to 70 per cent more than their basic wage.
"It's now becoming very, very attractive for members to come up here," McVarnock says. "That has really enhanced the marketability of doing a tour in V Division."
Still, Kolola's trial is a reminder that policing remains inherently risky. That's true anywhere, says McVarnock, but it is especially true in the North.
"You never know up here. What may seem a very minor call for service could escalate into something totally unsuspected.
"No call is taken lightly in the North."
