RCMP Museum

While waiting for my daughter to finish her "day at Luther" session at Luther College I found myself with my other daughter in west Regina with very little to do. We had already been out for lunch and had about an hour to kill. That didn't leave a lot of time to drive around the city, find something interesting to do, and get back to Luther in time to pick up daughter number one. I suggested to daughter number two that perhaps we should go and visit the RCMP Museum at F Division. I hadn't been there in ages. Daughter number two had been there at least once before for an elementary school field trip but it had been some time for her too. So, we decided to go.

The museum building is a wonderful piece of architecture that was put up around twenty years ago. I suspect that the overall funding for this project was a bit of "pork barrel" politics. The location of the museum is on the grounds of RCMP F Division where the Saskatchewan headquarters is located along with the training school. It's a historic site where the force has had a presence for over a hundred years. But... it is exceedingly out of the way of mainstream attractions in Regina. 

The museum does a good job of telling the story of the history of the force, its historical role in Canada, and what it's all about today. There are lots of historical artifacts on display from uniforms, to equipment, and documents. The displays about the modern incarnation of the force include some interactive displays where you get to test your deductive reasoning or work with actual investigative equipment. 

The hour that we had proved to be far too short to go through the entire set of displays and attend the showing of short films in the attached theatre. We spent quite a bit of time with a police car simulator. My daughter loved it but it proved to be a problem for me. While attempting to drive through the on-screen obstacle course, I developed quite a case of nausea. I could hardly wait to get home and take some Gravol.

The RCMP Museum was a nice way to kill an hour this afternoon. I don't expect this facility to be offered for free but the fees that we paid to attend seemed a bit stiff. Will we go back? Probably not anytime soon given that I've seen it several times now and so has my daughter. It's kind of a niche experience. If you're really interested in the RCMP or police work in general, this will be a very interesting experience for you. Otherwise, a single visit may be enough. Check it out though and see for yourself.