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TORONTO – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police got more than they bargained for when they agreed to star in a U.S. reality show.
The RCMP has formally pulled out of the true-life series about policing the Yukon by True Entertainment, the maker of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, after officers were filmed arresting an apparently intoxicated woman in Whitehorse on Wednesday night.
The incident, witnessed by locals as the cameras rolled, caused a public outcry over an American reality series turning rural poverty into trashy entertainment.
“While the RCMP believes it is important to convey the complexities of policing in the Yukon and highlight the successful relationships that make this possible, the RCMP has concluded that it is unable to continue to participate in this production,” David Gilbert, a spokesman for the police force, said in a statement Thursday.
The unnamed reality series started shooting on Aug. 10 “to capture the variety and uniqueness of policing in our territory,” Gilbert explained.
But on Aug. 16, the RCMP temporarily suspended its participation in the reality series after initial community concerns.
“Don’t the police have anything else to do? There are two police cars, two officers, a whole film crew for this one poor unfortunate woman,” former Yukon MP Audrey McLaughlin told the CBC as concerns over the RCMP’s Hollywood close-up grew.
The arrest this week of a distraught woman finally turned the tide against the U.S. shoot.
Gilbert said the RCMP has “taken the necessary steps to formally terminate our agreement with the production company.”
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