As spokesperson for the Prince George RCMP detachment, Cpl. Craig Douglass says he’s not in position to set federal policy for the country’s national police service now facing criticism for not using a cell phone-enabled emergency alert system to warn people of the active shooter who killed 22 Nova Scotians two weeks ago.
While there were lessons to be learned about what police services can do to better utilize technology to keep the public informed with immediate information to keep people out of danger, with no national protocol in place Douglass said he’s unable to comment on why a province-wide alert was not issued by Nova Scotia RCMP.
“If we had an active-shooter situation here we would use whatever resources are available to us,” said Douglass. “Our priority is public safety and we would do everything we possibly could to communicate to people if their lives are in jeopardy.
“Definitely, that (text message emergency alert is) something that could be utilized and we realize that,” he said. “Just like Amber alert… we know it’s there and we know under certain criteria it can be used. Certainly, an active shooter would meet that criteria for an emergency alert, but those decisions make their way to Victoria and Surrey, where our headquarters are.”
The province controls the emergency alert system used to warn the public of natural disasters such as tsunamis or approaching storms. Most cell phone users in Prince George have received test alerts over the past year or two to ensure the system is working. There’s also an Amber alert service to warn people in the case of a child abduction with descriptions of the people involved and how to contact police.
According to national spokesperson Cpl. Caroline Duval, the RCMP is reviewing how it handled the recent events in rural Nova Scotia and is considering developing a national operational policy which would provide formal protocols on how to use the emergency alert system. While tracking the movements of the gunman during his nearly 13-hour rampage, RCMP used Twitter to issue about a dozen tweets asking people to stay in their homes.
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil stated the province’s emergency management staff was brought in during that April 18-19 weekend specifically to act on a request of the RCMP to issue an emergency alert, but that request was never made, while the killings continued.
A public inquest will determine if and where mistakes were made. The investigation could result in operational changes, as did the 2017 inquiry which determined the RCMP was poorly-equipped to deal with a gunman in Moncton, N.B., who killed three officers and wounded two in a shootout on June 4, 2014. The officers in that case were armed with pistols and shotguns instead of short-barrel carbine rifles, which provide a longer range and greater accuracy. As a result, rapid-fire carbines are now available for use as standard RCMP policy.
B.C. has the largest contingent of RCMP officers in the country, with nearly half of the federal force is contracted to provide the province’s police services. Each province varies in how it implements its provincial emergency alert protocols.
“We want the community to be confident in us and I think time will tell with this investigation of mistakes were made,” said Douglass. “Undoubtedly, there will be recommendations and most of the time they’re usually police-related. If something like that were to happen here, we’re the biggest detachment for rural B.C. and we’ve got a lot of members. Even if it happened in a smaller detachment around us I think probably our resources would be rolling that way but it takes time to get there.”
The Prince George RCMP detachment is developing an app for people to download to their phones or computers that will allow for more immediate contact the public.
“We recognize that communicating to the people of the community is a priority and if we can make that better we will continue to make that better,” said Douglass.
