Following through with his promise of spearheading certain changes within the Estevan Police Service, police chief Paul Ladouceur said preparations are being made for the emergence of a Containment Warrant Entry Team (CWET) that will be ready to serve by 2015.
"It will essentially be a team of officers that are trained for those types of entries. You have your tactical units in larger cities like Regina, you have your front line officers, and CWETs are somewhere in between. It's certainly not to the level of a SWAT team by any means, but the idea is if we have a barricaded subject or a search warrant that needs to be executed where there is a potential risk, we'll deploy that team," Ladouceur explained.
The CWET will consist of officers with a high level of physical and psychological fitness, attributes that will be closely monitored during examinations to determine who will obtain a spot on the special unit. Combined with specialized equipment that includes new breaching tools, thicker bulletproof vests and heavier ammunition, the team will be used for a variety of situations. A number of officers, Ladouceur said, have expressed interest.
"Initially when a team like this is announced the community is somewhat shocked. Some say 'well why do we need this team, this is a small town?' This team isn't a luxury, it's about 'what if?' Anything can happen at anytime," he said.
Ladouceur said the possibility of an active shooter loose within the community is unfortunately a scenario that can befall our city and referred to the devastating June shootings in Moncton, NB.
"I think if you were to ask anyone in Moncton if they ever expected that to happen, they would say 'definitely not,'" he said.
Though preparations for extreme situations like the one in Moncton tie into the CWET's future usage, the heavier emphasis on drug crime in the Energy City is a focal point for the creation of the new unit.
"We're a growing city, but it's been said before that we're a small community with some big city problems," he said, adding as the city grows and becomes a larger target for traffickers the police service, which operates within it has to "keep up with the times."
"We can't just put drug officers in place to do drug investigations. Having the support that goes behind that investigation that often involves executing residential and business search warrants, which a lot of the times, are unannounced warrants where entries are made unbenounced to the subjects because you can imagine how easy it is to flush cocaine down the toilet or something like that. So they're quick entry and that's why there is specialized training to go along with that to make sure entry is done quickly and safely and to ensure the evidence is secured safely," he said.
Ladouceur stressed there's no push to increase the police budget to allow for this special unit and said they will look at cost saving options internally to fund the majority of it.
