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RCMP community constable dead in Rankin Inlet Sudden death rocks hamletby NNSL Staff Northern News Services Published Monday, June 11, 2012
Pilakapsi's body was found during the early morning hours of Saturday, June 9. The RCMP has scheduled a press conference Monday in Iqaluit. The young constable was highly regarded in Rankin after being one of the first group of aboriginal community constables to graduate from the RCMP training academy in Regina in April 2011. Pilakapsi, 25, spent a great deal of time with local youth during his year with the Rankin Inlet detachment of the RCMP. Although having full powers of arrest as a community constable, much of the focus of Pilakapsi's duties was to engage in active crime prevention and build positive relationships between communities and the RCMP. He also provided tactical, enforcement and investigational support to his fellow RCMP officers when needed. Pilakapsi often spoke of his career with the RCMP as being his dream job, adding he wanted to be with the force one day for as long as he could remember growing up. See Wednesday's Kivalliq News for further details. During the press conference in Iqaluit to introduce Pilakapsi shortly after his graduation, however, then-RCMP Supt. Howard Eaton did express some concern about having the young Inuit officer working in his home community, where Pilakapsi himself had asked to be stationed. At the time, Eaton said Rankin is a busy detachment and Pilakapsi's presence would aid both the local detachment and the community in general. He said the people in Rankin would feel very lucky to have him there, and the members will feel the same way too. "My concern is these people will get burned out from being the go?to person if anyone wants to talk to a police officer in Inuktitut, night and day, 24/7, so they're going to have to be quite disciplined," said Eaton during the 2011 press conference."
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