RCMP changes operations, patrols border for 1st time after Trump pushes for heightened security

RCMP officers at the Windsor, Ont., detachment have been patrolling the Canada-U.S. border in ways they've never done before since U.S. President Donald Trump pushed for increased security between the neighbouring countries.

Beginning in December, Const. Ian Smith and many of his more than 40 colleagues in the southwestern Ontario city have been spending their 12-hour shifts driving along roughly 800 kilometres of coastline between Tobermory, through Sarnia, up along the Detroit River and back around to Port Burwell, just southeast of London.

"We're looking for anything suspicious in regards to people or contraband, drugs, commodities coming into Canada or leaving Canada illegally," said Smith.

Canada announced its $1.3-billion border security plan in December following Trump's concerns over the flow of drugs and migrants. Ottawa asked the RCMP to "secure the border," Smith said.

In the first four months of these patrols, he said, it hasn't really yielded much, in part because the waterways aren't very active in cold weather.

But Smith said this type of work is hard to quantify.

"We're out here every day doing this in order to deter, so if we're not catching them, hopefully it's because we're deterring it," said Smith.

"There's 800 kilometres [of coastline], so how do we patrol that constantly, all the time? It's impossible," he added.

In January, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) announced Operation Deterrence, which joined forces with the RCMP to enhance border security. Two hundred OPP officers are dedicated to the boundary between both countries.

"A more co-ordinated, Team Canada approach that includes more boots on the ground is the only way to detect, deter and disrupt illegal activity, and ensure the safety and security of Canadian and American communities," said Ontario Premier Doug Ford in a January news release.

To help with the vast amount of coastline being covered on the ground, the RCMP also recently put officers in helicopters.

The last time RCMP officers saw illegal activity along waterways in southwestern Ontario involved human smuggling in September on the St. Clair River, Smith said.

During Smith's nine years with the RCMP in Windsor, he spent the bulk of that time working behind the scenes on drug investigations.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) would discover drugs at the border. Then, the RCMP would investigate where they came from and where they were going in order to make additional arrests and seizures.