RCMP unveil newly renovated ‘K’ Division Headquarters

The Alberta RCMP Operational Communication Centre at ‘K’ Division Headquarters in Edmonton underwent a $900 thousand renovation in an effort to improve the well-being and effectiveness of their operators.

“Everything from new flooring, new paint, to our new workstations. These workstations are ergonomically correct for our operators, which is a huge improvement from the previous workstations we had,” says Chris Spence, acting director at the Alberta RCMP Operational Communications Centre.

Megan Adkin has been a telecom operator for three and a half years. She says the new upgrades, which were completed about a month ago make the workspace more comfortable.

“You can adjust the height, and all of the lights at our work stations, and everything from heating and cooling just to have it set up and comfortable for our shifts,” she says. “It just comes down to personal comfort, as far as what we want during our shift. I’m very keen on standing during my shift, I find especially on night shifts that’s what keeps me going, some people are comfortable with sitting and we just plug along and get the job done.

“It’s a lot more of a relaxing environment. We are dealing with critical instances and so it’s difficult just based on the type of work we are dealing with, but the OCC upgrades have helped with how we are dealing with everything,” says Adkin.

Spence says the new equipment at the workstations will allow them to ‘future-proof’ and prepare for upcoming changes.

“When we get calls in the future from citizens, it will allow us to enhance the location features of that, as well as track and enhance that data that is coming into us, which we can feed to either the RCMP officers responding or our partners, firefighters and ambulance dispatch.”

Alberta RCMP “K” Division has two Operational Communications Centres. They are located in Edmonton and Red Deer.

In 2022 up to December 24th, the ‘K’ Division OCC”s have received a total of 648,401 calls. Of those calls, 239,010 were 9-1-1 calls.

“We are dealing with critical instances, so people aren’t calling us when they are having a great day, they are calling us when they are having their worst days, or when something critical has happened, and so when we have a nice environment to be working in, we can help them bring them down throughout that situation and provide better assistance,” says Adkin.

Operators work 12-hour shifts with a combination of two days and two nights followed by four days off.

“Because of the nature of the job, dealing with life and death emergencies, dealing with emergencies from our officers on the road, they are really tied to that workstation, so it’s important when they are here, and they are doing their job, they have the comfort they need to be responsive, alert, and orientated so when that calls comes in, whether it’s the start of the shift or the last call at the end of the shift, they will get the same response from the RCMP,” says Spence.

Spence says the two ‘K’ Division OCC’s are currently averaging about 75 calls an hour, and says more operators are always needed.

“Shift work is a tough job, and dealing with the clients we are dealing with is also not always a pleasant experience. People don’t call the RCMP and 9-1-1 because they are having a great day, it’s a crisis for them,” he says. “We’re always trying to hire, and make sure we have enough staff to meet that next emergency call.”