Sureté du Québec (SQ) Officer Murdered, 27 March 2023

[lenaitch]

that is a fair point. quite a few of my peers might be great at de-escalation of heightened circumstances, conducting enforcement activities, etc......but don't get a whole lot of mindset preparation, other than what they do on their own......and SWAT usually know well in advance of the stakes of the call they are handling, but in patrol world. you never know what that box of chocolates contains. which can really mess with peoples heads when they have not had a lethal encounter in years or ever - and then pow. someone you never got more than four lines of general dispatch information, or just pulled over for a traffic violation - is now trying to kick your ass and/or kill you. really puts the zap on people's heads sometimes....

Agree with both you and Kevin. I'll add too that tactical (ETF, ERT, SWAT, etc.) train and work as a a team, as opposed to regular members who, at most, might have a partner, who may or may not be the same person each shift. It's hard for a patrol member to be 'en guard' for every single encounter, particularly in a deployed rural service. An alternative, which I am starting to see more and more of, is members treating the public like the enemy and every encounter is a high-risk event. With recent events, I'm no longer sure I blame them.

 

[OldSolduer]

yep, plus - due to the state of care for the mentally ill in Canada, there are thousands of people walking along who, after going off medication, declining due to their mental health problem and grabbing whatever to arm themselves, sometimes get killed by police. never have had to do that, but I can tell you - I am pretty sure that would be harder to work through than using deadly force on a for real armed criminal committing crime by choice.

Roger that and I agree with the following:

Mental health is being used as an excuse for crime. Most offenders aren’t mentally ill - they just don’t care.

The truly mentally ill are often ignored

 

[mariomike]

The truly mentally ill are often ignored

My first station was 800 metres from "999". ( For anyone familiar with de-institutionalization. )

Guess you could say it was an educational experience. Sort of. At least they walked.