The RCMP still has its world-famous musical ride, but it's the end of the road for ridealongs.

Canada's national police force has decided that volunteer auxiliary officers will no longer be allowed to ride with RCMP members in police cars.

The decision comes after an RCMP review following the fatal shootings of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in Ottawa in 2014, and Const. David Wynn in St. Albert in 2015.

Auxiliary Const. Derek Bond was also shot that January evening in St. Albert but his injuries were not life-threatening.

Cpl. Laurel Scott with the RCMP media relations group confirmed the new rules on Wednesday.

She said the changes are designed to protect auxiliary officers, who are unarmed and don't have the same level of training as RCMP officers.

She said that left them "at a disadvantage."

The auxiliary officer program has been in place since 1963, and active in Alberta since 1978.

It was introduced to enhance community policing and crime prevention.

Scott said auxiliary officers are a great support for the RCMP.

"They help us at community events. They help us with our community policing program. They have in the past participated in Check Stops. They've done all sorts of different roles with our members."

Scott confirmed that the RCMP will continue to use the assistance of auxiliary officers for things such as community engagement, public meetings and crime prevention duties.

"We're still going to use them and they're still very, very valuable to us."

Laurel said duties for RCMP officers won't change, even though they've lost "a second set of eyes" on ridealongs.

"They've been a great assistance to us but ultimately we're still responsible for all the operational duties, and we always have been".

There are about 300 auxiliary officers in Alberta.

Scott said it's too early to say what effect the changes might have on recruiting new auxiliary officers.