WATCH: The head of the Codiac RCMP says work is underway to better equip officers with C8 patrol carbines, but as Brion Robinson reports, the Codiac Regional Policing Authority would like more details about the upgrade to be released.
MONCTON – The vice-chair of the Codiac Regional Policing Authority says training more officers to use carbines and installing more carbine racks on patrol cars is a good first step for the RCMP.
Charles Leger says the public needs to know that police are equipped to do their work.
“It certainly sets the stage for reassuring the public that carbines are being placed in vehicles and that the racks are being placed in vehicles,” he said.
In a statement released June 10, the Codiac Superintendent Paul Beauchesne said more racks are coming to patrol cars and more officers will be trained on how to use them.
“A number are being installed now and by the end of this week a majority of our cars will have carbine racks,” he said. “As the racks arrive they are being installed with the priority being our marked patrol cars.”
“Over the past year we have received a sufficient number of carbines at Codiac to allow us to properly respond to high risk calls for service.”
This comes after three RCMP officers were killed following a shooting in the city’s north end last June.
READ MORE: RCMP one year after Moncton: what’s changed?
A report into the shootings said the officers were outgunned because they could only rely on shotguns and pistols.
The report’s author went on to say that officers need more carbines and better weapons training.
Calls for more carbines and better weapons training have been going on for years.
READ MORE: ‘We shouldn’t and won’t forget’: Moncton one year later
Professor Darryl Davies works at Carleton University’s sociology and anthropology department. He authored a report following the deadly RCMP shootings in Mayerthorpe, Alberta in 2005.
In it, he said officers needed to be better equipped to do their work.
But he said the recommendations were never implemented.
“Here we are now in 2015 and you’re telling me they are just getting racks installed in a detachment responding to a crisis after the fact,” he said.
“To me it’s just bizarre.”
He said the advantage of the carbine is that it’s portable, light and its shooting distance is up to a 100 metres.
Although more training and racks are on the way for Moncton, the RCMP won’t say how many carbines they have for safety reasons.
Despite their concerns, Leger says more information would put residents at ease.
“We live in a different age now where people want to know information and they really want to be reassured,” he said.
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