Multiplication of shootings Road controllers demand a service weapon

The multiplication of shootings and recent armed attacks targeting representatives of the police worries road controllers.This is why their URGE Quebec union to allow them to carry a service weapon, like other peace agents.Controllers "put themselves at risk on Thursday by working with an armed man at La Prairie.

Publié le 3 sept. 2021Louis-Samuel Perron La Presse

"We are the only ones among the six bodies of peace agents who are not armed in Quebec!We are the heavy vehicle police.Arms trafficking and drugs, it fits through trucks.It is led by organized crime.However, we are dependent on the police, ”deplores ÉricGoodness, president of the Fraternity of the Constables of Road Control of Quebec (FCCRQ) in an interview (FCCRQ).

It is important not to confuse road signals on construction sites with road controllers, who are peace agents.The approximately 300 road controllers in Quebec can thus arrests and apply 16 articles of the Criminal Code.

No later than Thursday at La Prairie, road controllers participated in the arrest of a man running with a "12 -truncated".A "very dangerous" intervention, according to M.Labonté, since the controllers had no firearms.

Multiplication des fusillades Les contrôleurs routiers réclament une arme de service

"They put their bulletproof jacket.They only had their stick and cayenne pepper.They told the man to let go of the weapon and passed the handcuffs.They have started at risk, ”says the president of the union.

This summer, in the Val d'Or region, road controllers intercepted a driver wanted by the police.Man was considered to be "dangerous", "very violent" and possibly armed.However, peace agents had to wait for the police, who arrested the suspect weapon in fists.

ÉricGoodness deplores that the work of its members is "dangerous" enough to have a bulletproof jacket, but not "enough" to have a firearm."With all the shootings, our patrollers are very worried, especially our office in Montreal-Est, in the hot sectors of the province," adds M.Goodness.

The attacks on police, as lately in Beauce and Montreal, near the CUSM, particularly concern the union president.

This is why he calls the Minister of Public Security Geneviève Guilbault to "stop procrastinating", while his union has been asking for the Legault government for three years to obtain the right to carry weapons.

In the office of Minister Guilbault, we assure being "open" to meet the union "in a timely manner in the coming weeks".

"The statutes of special and police constable include risks.Road controllers do a good job.The police community is there to support them when necessary and prudence is required.The reflection on the police reality in the wake of the report of the advisory committee on police reality continues, "commented Amélie Paquet, press secretary in the office of Minister Guilbault.