A man approaches the RCMP's commercial crimes building in Montreal, Que., attracting a few suspicious glances. He slips through an open back door, then starts shooting.
"The reality of today's times is that police are targets," says Cpl. William Demeau, an investigator in the commercial crimes building. "We need to be ready for anything."
The simulated shooting was part of a training exercise to improve employee response in emergency situations. It's one of several new measures Quebec RCMP are taking to prepare their ranks for facing a new reality: active shooters targeting police.
"Before, we made procedures just in case," says François Viens, operational support co-ordinator who's spearheading the initiative. "Now, we have to push the envelope further. Active shooters are becoming more prevalent."
Educating employees
Violent encounters with police and military are not unfamiliar in Canada — in 2014, a suspect rammed two military officers with his vehicle in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., killing one of them. Days later, an attacker shot a Canadian soldier at the War Memorial in Ottawa before storming Parliament Hill with his weapon.
Following those attacks, Quebec RCMP assigned Viens the role of preparing all employees — both police officers and civilian workers — for a potential attack on their buildings.
He created an online directive for employees: a Guide of Preventive Measures in the Event of an Active Threat. The document provides step-by-step directions to civilian employees, police officers, building security and operational command centre workers during the first minutes of an active threat event.
"When you have up to 200 police officers in a building who can respond to an incident, it's very different than a situation at a shopping mall or airport, which has mostly civilians," says Viens. "We're trying to give police employees the best tools to respond in our work environment."
To increase employee interest and engagement, Viens also produced an awareness video. The five-minute clip shows a dramatization of an active shooter entering a police headquarters building, and demonstrates how employees should respond.
"We wanted to create a tool that was more compelling than an awareness poster," he says. "It gives an overall view of what employees need to do. It's not a tactics video — it's for everyone in the RCMP."
For detachments that want to prepare further, Viens is working with Emergency Response Team specialists Cpl. Alain Benjamin and Sgt. Jean Dion to lead formal lockdown drills, like the one at the commercial crimes building in Montreal. With divisional buy-in and support from detachments, they're visiting each RCMP building across the province to test their active threat procedures.
"The plan is alive, so we can customize it to the environment," says Benjamin. "We have some detachments with fewer people or with more civilians, some in big cities or in rural towns . . . we tweak it to the reality of the place."
Confident in a crisis
Before beginning the exercise at the commercial crimes building in Montreal, Viens and Benjamin showed the awareness video to all staff. Then, they brought in the RCMP's training unit in Quebec to make sure all officers in the building were up to speed on Immediate Action Rapid Deployment (IARD) training.
On the day of the event, Emergency Response Team and Emergency Medical Response Team members assisted employees and answered any last-minute questions. They locked down the perimeter and made sure no live ammunition was on the premises before starting.
"We didn't know what the incident would be, or where it would originate," says Demeau, who participated in the exercise. "We just reacted."
As soon they heard the gunshots, Demeau and three other RCMP officers used their IARD training and moved towards the threat. Before the shooter could get any further, they took him down.
"It was a really good eye-opener for people," he says. "It gave us an idea of how quickly things can happen and the procedures we have to follow. I think people are more aware and in-tune with what needs to happen now."
After the exercise, Viens and Benjamin debriefed the building, offering recommendations to employees to improve their response.
"The expectation is that police will be ready for any situation at all times," says Benjamin. "We're helping them prepare. Whether it's for a terrorist attack or a single active shooter, we need to have procedures in place to maintain the public's confidence."