June 16, 2022. A 22-year-old young man fires a crossbow bolt and barricades himself in his home on Marie-Victorin Boulevard, in Brossard. Police officers from the Intervention Group (GI) of the Longueuil Agglomeration Police Service (SPAL) were dispatched to the scene.
But they cannot act directly against the madman, because it is a high-risk situation and they can only intervene in moderate-risk situations.
The SPAL therefore calls on the Tactical Intervention Group (GTI) of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ). But he is busy elsewhere. Not only did he not arrive until four hours later, but there were only four SQ police officers, an insufficient number for an intervention of this type.
They themselves will have to ask for help from members of the Longueuil GI, who have been on site since the beginning, and who already had the capacity, but not the right, to intervene.
Lost hours and a return to square one.
New tools
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE LAVAL POLICE SERVICE
Members of the Laval Police Service Tactical Intervention Group during an exercise
Such a situation should no longer arise in the territories of the SPAL and the Laval Police Service (SPL).
Since Saturday, the intervention groups of these two police forces have obtained the status of tactical intervention group, even if their members already had all the skills to act as GTI for a long time.
By moving from GI status to that of GTI, Laval and Longueuil police officers will now be able to intervene to control a barricaded individual who has fired at least one shot, intercept a dangerous individual in a moving vehicle and act during a demonstration with a crowd. hostile.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Police directors Pierre Brochet, from Laval, and Patrick Bélanger, from the Longueuil agglomeration
“It is for the efficiency of operations and investigations, but above all for the safety of police officers and citizens, that this increase is important,” proudly declares Pierre Brochet, director of the SPL.
“There is a very fine line between a moderate risk intervention and a high risk intervention. It is always based on experience, knowledge, training, etc. It’s certain that after 20 years of existence, the people of our GI already knew that,” adds his SPAL counterpart, Patrick Bélanger.
A derogation
Only police forces of level 4 and above had a tactical intervention group in Quebec: the Sûreté du Québec, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), Division C of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (GRC) and the Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ).
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE LAVAL POLICE SERVICE
When they are not working on an operation, members of tactical intervention groups are continually exercising or training.
The police in Laval and the Longueuil agglomeration are level 3.
There Police Act indicates that a police force reaches level 4 when it serves a population of 500,000 inhabitants or more.
The cities of Laval and Longueuil are about 50,000 people away from reaching that number, meaning their police forces could move to level 4 in about four or five years.
The directors of the two services, Pierre Brochet and Patrick Bélanger, asked the Quebec Ministry of Public Security in January to obtain an exemption, so that the level of intervention of their GIs could be increased and they obtain the status of GTI before reaching the 500,000 inhabitants mark.
Timely
For the two directors, this change is welcome in the context where armed violence has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic.
INFOGRAPHICS THE PRESS
Number of events involving firearm discharges in Laval and Longueuil
“When we talk about risk assessment, we are confronted with armed people much more often than before. We have tripled the number of times we have used our GI in recent years because we are always in front of firearms,” says Mr. Brochet.
Now we have the capacity and authorization to carry out interventions [dans des situations impliquant] armed individuals, we are at the same level as the SQ, the SPVM, the RCMP and the SPVQ, and that is important for citizens.
Pierre Brochet, director of the Laval Police Department
The latter also believes that in the urban context, faced with the risks of a terrorist attack, for example, the addition of two additional GTIs “is a strength for the Montreal region, but also for Quebec as a whole”.
Patrick Bélanger was deputy director general of the SQ and responsible for security at COP15 in Montreal in December 2022.
He remembers that the number of GTI police officers desired in the large-scale security system that the international event required had not been reached.
“With this enhancement, we will have more robustness. Today, we would do COP15 again, we would have our figure, because Laval and Longueuil could contribute,” he said.
He also adds that the GTIs of the SPL and SPAL should now be called in more for reinforcement by the other police forces.
“It opens up the assistance capacity a little more,” concludes Patrick Bélanger.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.