NOVA SCOTIA RCMP
Last updated November 28, 2010

Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Nova Scotia

Note:  This site does not list specific talk group information for the Nova Scotia RCMP or Halifax Regional Police.  Information included below is general information only or is readily discerned by those listening to the public airwaves, or is historical information that will not compromise operations of these agencies.  

The RCMP in Nova Scotia operates primarily on the 800 MHz Nova Scotia Trunked Mobile System.   Its communications on the trunk are all digital, and some of them are encrypted.   Even if you have the necessary scanner for the unencrypted communications, you won't hear a lot as much of the communications between the dispatchers and the police cruisers is now done by way of mobile data terminals and therefore in comparison with days gone by, there is much less to be heard.

Trunk Communications:    As stated in the lead-in page, the RCMP carries out many varied duties in Nova Scotia.   Most of them use the TMR and there are many talk groups.  See below for organizational information.  Reports indicate that there are currently three district detachments of the RCMP in Nova Scotia, replacing the many smaller area detachments of the past.   These districts are Southwest, Halifax, and Northern (Northeast?).    The Halifax District Detachment is completely integrated with the Halifax Regional Police, and those interested should check the HRP page.   The other two district detachments are organized into local offices, still sometimes themselves referred to as detachments.   Communications are on the TMR and overwhelmingly are organized into county-wide talkgroups.   For example in Southwest Nova District, there are talkgroups for each of the counties in the district.  

420 MHz Communications:   The RCMP is a national force that has an allocation of many frequencies in the 420 MHz UHF band.   I previously included a link here but that other site is no more. I have not monitored these frequencies but I do expect that they are in use in some way in our region.  I have been told that in other areas of Canada they are encrypted at least most of the time.

VHF Communications:    HISTORICAL INFORMATION ONLY. Prior to the changeover to the 800 MHz system at the end of 2000, the RCMP in Nova Scotia utilized an extensive VHF network, with most repeater outputs in the 155 MHz range.   This system should now in 2010 be considered gone or virtually so.  It lingered on for a time with some sites gone from the time of the changeover but most still up and running for many years.  It was at first assumed that the VHF network was dismantled and its frequencies given up.   Several of the repeaters were heard on rare occasions with what appeared to be auxiliary patrol communications ("Citizens on Patrol").   I last heard these communications on Halloween 2003, but several times up until recently I heard the Halifax area repeaters being keyed up with no traffic.   Sources now suggest that any repeaters that have been operational in recent years are merely the result of them not being disconnected or removed and that there are likely only a small handful still working.  The only one now thought to be working in the Halifax region is the Dartmouth East repeater.  For in-depth information on this legacy network go to this page: http://marscan.com/nsrcmpnetwork.htm

ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE RCMP IN NOVA SCOTIA.  

Click here for the official current list of offices and detachments in Nova Scotia, at the RCMP website.  It is currently unclear as to how many detachments there actually are in Nova Scotia.  There is an uncertainty even within the force as to what a detachment is.

The RCMP serves most of the land area of Nova Scotia.  Its operations make up H Division of the national force and its headquarters are on Oxford Street in Halifax.  That location is also the headquarters for the force throughout eastern Canada.  At one time H Division was divided into subdivisions; however the nomenclature has changed to 3 districts (Southwest Nova, Halifax and Northeast Nova).  For scannists all that matters is that, outside of specialized duties, the force is divided into local offices.    The RCMP serves as the provincial police force of Nova Scotia and therefore patrols all areas that lie outside of a city, town or regional municipality.   It is also contracted by many towns to be the municipal force, so that in fact it is everywhere except the following municipalities:  Bridgewater, Kentville, Amherst, Springhill, Truro, New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville, Trenton and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.  It shares responsibility in the Halifax Regional Municipality as described below.   Above all of this, the RCMP also provides federal policing services throughout the province.

There is a fundamental and unique quirk in the general duty organization of the NS RCMP.   Outside the Halifax Regional Municipality the RCMP is entirely self-managed from headquarters in Halifax and dispatched from a  communications centre in Truro.   Within HRM there is a situation unique in all of Canada.   HRM is the equivalent to a city, but has extensive suburban and rural areas.  These areas are patrolled for the most part by 6 detachments of the Halifax District of the RCMP.  These local area detachments are Lower Sackville, Tantallon, Cole Harbour, Musquodoboit Harbour, Sheet Harbour and North Central (Middle Musquodoboit).    The remainder of HRM is patrolled by the Regional Police Service.    These two services are headquartered together at the downtown Halifax police station.   The chief of HRP and the CO of the RCMP's Halifax Detachment have offices in the same hallway.  It can be said that HRM has two police chiefs, with each one in charge of his own areas and resources, but cooperating to a great extent.  HRP is larger than the RCMP Halifax in terms of number of personnel but the opposite in terms of size of area covered.   This joint service is dispatched together through the HRP dispatch centre in Dartmouth, using a combination of HRP and RCMP talkgroups on the Nova Scotia trunk radio system.    The Cole Harbour area of the RCMP operates on the HRP's East talkgroups along with HRP units.   The Lower Sackville RCMP office operates on the HRP West talkgroups.   The other RCMP offices operate on their own RCMP talkgroups, but dispatched by HRP personnel.  The three detachments covering the rural eastern part of HRM share one talk group. This was a huge step for the RCMP in that not only does another police service dispatch them, they have also cooperatively adopted procedures and conventions used by the HRP.  For more information on the HRM operations of the RCMP and of HRP see the separate page on this site.

Outside of the HRM (Halifax District Detachment) all general duty uniformed patrols and responses are dispatched by the central communications centre in Truro.  There may be a functional back-up facility located at the former location (XJE416) at the provincial HQ on Oxford Street in Halifax.

Each detachment and other organizational unit in the province has a radio ID number, which in the case of marked vehicles also appears on the side of the car.   For example the number for the Stellarton office is 38 [I have listed these ID's farther down this page].  Then there is a letter for the type of unit or assignment, then an individual car number.  The letters go like this:

  A    general uniformed duties in separate town contract detachments  (this includes first nations contracts) 

  B    general uniformed duties in other detachments, including detachments that are mixed town and rural

  C    highway patrol ("traffic services") units

  D    plainclothes investigators

  E    special duties e.g. identification ("ident"), police dog service, community liaison, etc.

For example, a typical police cruiser from the Stellarton office is 38B4.   

The RCMP consistently uses the international phonetic standard which goes like this: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, etc. etc.

General duty patrol members do enforce traffic laws, but specialized traffic services duties have been combined into regional units separately managed from the general duty structure-- there are 7 of these regional units.  It is normal for the units to operate on the same channel as the general duty members in that same area; however they also use Tac channels or simplex while conducting radar operations.

Prefixes for detachments and other units.

These are the unit ID's as I knew (or "intelligently guessed" them in 1999, based on the obvious alphabetical order) along with some of the changes due to amalgamations since then. All numbers 60 and higher are new allocations since 1999.  Guesses are indicated by ??    Many of these will have been amalgamated in recent years so that in any one county all offices use just one prefix.  Some of those changes are indicated. Once again, please send me your corrections or amendments.  e-mail marscan1@gmail.com  Thanks!!   It is possible that all local designators within any one county have by 2008 been folded into one designator for the whole county.  For example:   8 Bridgewater, 11 Chester and 23 Lunenburg may all be united under one of these numbers.   This is the type of update that I require.  Please note that in the HRM the vehicles for communications within the regional system use a different identfication.  For example 22B19 from Lower Sackville identifies as LS19.    This latter type of designator appears on the side of the cars in most cases; however some also carry the normal force-wide designator, e.g. 22B19.    

Vehicles marked with the 71C prefix were seen in Lower Sackville on May 20, 2009.  At least one of the four vehicles seen also had "Western Traffic Services" markings.   It is unknown how this 71 series relates to the other traffic services units in the 60's series.

 Links to Nova Scotia RCMP sites: Antigonish Detachment,  Digby Detachment,
Kings Detachment , Cape Breton Regional, Lower Sackville office of the Halifax Detachment  (these semi-official sites come and go!)