Bracing for a major staffing shortage as a wave of officers readies for retirement, Canada's national police force launched a major new hiring campaign on Monday.

'They're not coming to the doors in the same quantity and quality that they used to.'—Geoff Gruson, executive director Police Sector Council

For the first time in its 135-year history, the RCMP will use radio spots to draw in young people, as well as the internet and the ethnic press in an effort to diversify.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. John Nuvoloni said the reinvigorated push to hook in new recruits comes at a time when the force needs to counter a potential staffing crisis.

"There was a big hiring [initiative] right around the [1976] Montreal Olympics, when many thousands of RCMP officers were hired at that time. They're now the ones who are coming up to the retirement age, and we're trying to fill those gaps now," Nuvoloni said.

Add to that the fact that the mid-1990s saw deep cuts in the number of new recruits, he said, and there is good reason for the RCMP to attract a new generation of officers.

Still, joining the Mounties has become a tougher sell these days, the head of a group that advises police forces on recruitment issues said.

Not only are young people being drawn to other forces, but "they're not coming to the doors in the same quantity and quality that they used to," said Geoff Gruson, the executive director of the Police Sector Council.

'Corrupt, biased and prejudiced'

The RCMP has to cope with a new Canadian reality where young people may find that kind of lifestyle unattractive, Gruson noted.

"The fact that you have to work shifts, you have to be mobile, you have to be prepared to move to small settlements — Moose Groin, Sask.; Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T.— you know, the kids today are saying, 'Is that what I want?'"

Some young people's views of the profession have also changed, he added, especially in light of recent leadership and pension scandals involving the RCMP.

Gruson said there seems to be more of a tendency among people who shun careers in law enforcement to believe that "police people are corrupt, biased and prejudiced, and abuse their power, and therefore it's less attractive to go into policing," he said.

RCMP recruiters insist that the recent scandals have not affected their recruiting, but the force is still having to resort to new and novel methods to draw in a new batch of officers.