A year after being named the new Commanding Officer for Saskatchewan RCMP, Rhonda Blackmore was officially sworn in through a ceremony Thursday afternoon.

“I am very proud to be in the role I am in,” Blackmore stated. “Being a commanding officer comes with great responsibility, but it is such a great opportunity as well to provide that support that our frontlines need to make sure that they are providing that excellent policing services that they give every day.”

She replaces Mark Fischer, who joined the Oak Bay Police Department on Vancouver Island as their new deputy chief.

Some of Blackmore’s career highlights over her career include being the first woman to make it to the emergency response team, achieving the rank of inspector in 2011 and being promoted to superintendent in 2015. She was then later promoted to the director of operational policies and programs.

As for what he is looking to work on, she said they are hoping to continue working on indigenous relationships and recruitment.

“We are continuing with our reconciliation efforts with our indigenous people. We have various initiatives starting to look at how we can advance those. There have been lots of great progress in that area, but we want to do more,” she said. “We are working on recruitment. Making sure that people understand the great opportunities that RCMP offers and recruiting individuals from Saskatchewan and making sure they understand what we are looking for in a police officer and what we can offer them.”

From an enforcement perspective, she said a focus on gangs, guns, and drugs.

“The province has helped us in providing additional resources that will target traffickers and really focus on the guns, drugs, and human smuggling that is happening both within the province and drugs and guns coming into the province from elsewhere,” she said. “It’s such a level of violence, and it causes so much harm to individuals in so many communities that we really are targetting those individuals who are intent on causing harm.”

Blackmore added that she is thankful to the people of Saskatchewan for having faith in her to lead the province’s RCMP.