Moncton shootings causing a heavier police presence across the Maritimes

CTV Atlantic: Strong police presence The shootings in Moncton have heightened vigilance around calls involving guns.

The presence of police at various scenes involving reports of guns has increased in the Maritimes since the shootings in Moncton last week.

Wednesday morning there was a heavy police presence at Dartmouth High School after a report about a man who said he was going to go to school with a gun. Shortly after, an 18-year-old was arrested nearby without incident.

“They didn’t exactly just put on the alarms, it was more of an announcement just casually telling us to stay inside the classroom,” said high school student Elliott Couture.

This past Saturday, there was an elevated police presence in Burnside, N.S. after another report of a man on the roof of a business with a firearm.

“I was impressed and interested in the response to the gun call in Burnside,” said Paul McKenna, an adjunct professor who specializes in law enforcement and police training at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “It’s far easier to deescalate than it is to escalate after the fact.”

Halifax police say they altered their patrol model several months ago, long before the manhunt in Moncton.

“One of the things that we’ve done in Halifax is ensure that every single watch has at least five members of the Emergency Response Team working,” explains Halifax police Chief Jean-Michel Blais.

Blais says in the event of a gun call, like the one in Burnside over the weekend, the ERT can now be on the scene within minutes. Paul McKenna says events like the shooting in Moncton will have an effect on law enforcement.

“All police services across Canada, and certainly in North America – maybe even around the world – as they become aware of this kind of event at a deeper level of understanding will revisit some of their training programs,” adds McKenna.

McKenna says the focus on “active shooters,” like the school shootings at Sandy Hook and Columbine, will be a topic at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police annual conference this summer.

“Obviously they planned their conference before the events in Moncton,” adds McKenna. “But this gives new emphasis to that as something that they need to study. It sort of underscores and highlights the fact that this is a really important topic that police services need to know about.”

With files from CTV’s Jacqueline Foster.