Manitoba RCMP name longtime officer new top Mountie

The RCMP have named a new top Mountie in Manitoba — Assistant Commissioner Rob Hill.

Hill was named the new commanding officer of the Manitoba RCMP on Tuesday, the agency said in a news release on Thursday.

He is now responsible for more than 1,000 Mounties and approximately 500 civilian members and public service employees serving in 80 detachments across the province.

Hill, who grew up in a Royal Canadian Air Force family, joined the Canadian Armed Forces in Manitoba and served as a medic. In 1997, he returned to the province as a constable in the RCMP, posted to Morris.

Since he became a Mountie, Hill has served in Manitoba, Iqaluit and Alberta, becoming involved in the critical incident program. The RCMP defines critical incidents as high-risk situations requiring the mobilization of several emergency or law enforcement resources.

In this province, he was a criminal operations officer, responsible for the day-to-day core policing activities of the RCMP, an investigator and supervisor with the Winnipeg drug section and a general duty police officer in Island Lake.

Hill's appointment comes after commissioner Jane MacLatchy announced her retirement from the RCMP after more than 34 years of service in March.

MacLatchy became the commanding officer of the Manitoba RCMP in February 2019. She was the first woman in the Manitoba Mounties' 87-year history to hold the position.

She led the Manitoba RCMP during tough times, including through the search for two young B.C. murder suspects in the summer of 2019, as well as the freezing deaths of four people from India trying to cross the Canada-U.S. border near Emerson in January.