Pubdate: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2008 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 BETTER POLICE TRAINING WOULD MAKE US ALL SAFER The Laval police department failed, miserably, to provide its officers with the training and support they need to do their jobs properly. As a tragic result, Constable Daniel Tessier was killed on March 2, 2007, and a fellow officer wounded, in a raid on a private home. This week the provincial workplace health-and-safety board hammered that message home: Daniel Tessier would still be alive if he or his fellow officers had acted more prudently, notably by checking the provincial gun registry before raiding the Brossard home of Basil Parasiris. The suspected drug dealer, whose wife and children were in the home at the time of the raid, said later he thought he was being attacked by home invaders. Since that terrible night, the Laval police department has trained its 500 officers in proper registry searches. It now also requires that an operational plan be drawn up before officers launch what is called a "dynamic entrance." New department regulations also require that the plan be submitted to superior officers who will analyze any risks. In hindsight, it seems extraordinary that it took the death of an officer for such rules to be put in place. The sudden appearance of police with their guns drawn will always catch people unawares and throw them off. Police should be prepared for extreme emotional and physical reactions. One would like to think that the very least police would do is consider the risks ahead of time. In the Parasiris case, Laval police searched the gun registry only for the address of the place they intended to raid. Had they searched Parasiris's name, they would have found he had a registered gun, albeit one improperly registered at a previous address. During his trial last year on a first-degree murder charge in Tessier's death, Parasiris, who was acquitted, admitted he had bought three other guns illegally and kept all four loaded in his house. But if the Laval police department appears to have learned from Tessier's death - and that of Laval Constable Valerie Gignac, killed answering a disturbance call in 2005 - the rest of the province seems slow to react. At the province's police training academy no changes have been made in the way cadets are trained, either in dynamic entrances or in responding to disturbance calls. A spokesperson told media that the school takes these issues very seriously - as well it should. And so should police forces. A higher standard of training would make us all safer.