The family of a peace officer violently killed while investigating a dog complaint nearly five years ago says changes have to be made to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future.
In August, 2012, Rod Lazenby, 62, was strangled by a man who was later deemed not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder. It happened in the Municipal District of Foothills south of Calgary.
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The family was attending a fatality inquiry examining the circumstances surrounding the retired Mountie’s death this week.
“What we don’t want is another fatality to happen before people actually pay attention,” said Robyn Halbert, sister of Rod Lazenby, outside the court room.
“We knew it was important to Rod to protect his fellow peace officers, so you have to have something good come out of a fatality.”
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The inquiry heard how the M.D. of Foothills, which employed Lazenby, made sweeping changes to its policies and procedures concerning officer safety in the wake of his death.
Watch below from June 12: A fatality inquiry into the death of RCMP Peace Officer Rod Lazenby is examining the circumstances surrounding the August 2012 incident and exploring possible changes to policies and procedures that would improve officer safety.
Some changes included better training, communications, and a requirement that officers cannot attend to rural locations for investigations or enforcement alone.
“We’ve tried to go over and above the base minimum requirements of the program to make sure that our officers are as safe as possible in the field,” said Darlene Roblin, protective services coordinator for the M.D. of Foothills.
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Roblin added they’re willing to share their experience.
“We want people to learn from what happened to us, to make these changes proactively, and not wait for another tragedy to happen before people look at making the changes that we’ve implemented, and I think in doing so we honour Rod’s memory.”
Provincial Court Judge Bruce Fraser will likely take months producing a report containing possible recommendations to improve officer safety.
The Lazenby family would like to see other municipalities in the province adopt similar recommendations implemented by the M.D. of Foothills.