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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/j-division-rcmp-alert-system-province-1.5753904
Province hands over emergency alert responsibilities to RCMP
RCMP will take over Amber Alerts and alerts involving police-related matters, like a dangerous person
· CBC News · Posted: Oct 08, 2020 6:30 AM AT
Emergency alerts were issued by the province's Department of Justice and Public Safety, but have since been taken over by RCMP. (Aaron Amat/Shutterstock)
New Brunswick RCMP's J-Division has recently taken over responsibility from the province to issue Amber and emergency alerts involving specific police-related matters.
The alerts, which were previously handled by the province's Department of Justice and Public Safety, were taken over by RCMP over the summer.
"It will help police get critical and potentially life–saving information instructions to affected members of the public as quickly as possible," said Insp. Andrea Gallant, operations support and communications centre program manager with the RCMP's J-Division.
Alert Ready is Canada's emergency alerting system, which delivers critical and potentially life-saving alerts to New Brunswickers. The alerts are sent through text messages, radio and over television.
But only a few members with the RCMP in Fredericton have access and training to send the alerts.
"The RCMP will issue such alerts on behalf of all police forces in New Brunswick," said Geoffrey Downey, a spokesperson for the province's Department of Safety, in an emailed statement to CBC News.
"NB EMO has been working with RCMP J-Division staff since May of this year to establish this capability for the RCMP."
Alerts can be sent for different kinds of threats to the public, including wildfires, natural disasters and radiological emergencies.
Alerts involving the RCMP could be related to a dangerous person.
Plan was in the works before 911 service went down
Technical problems disrupted emergency phone lines and landlines throughout New Brunswick earlier this summer. But Gallant said the plan for RCMP to take over some of the responsibility was in the works before that.
That morning, New Brunswick RCMP said on Twitter that a public Alert Ready message had been requested to the province, but nothing was sent out before the 911 service was fixed.
"We didn't have that capacity at that time, it was still with EMO [Emergency Measures Organization]," she said.
RCMP and other police services resorted to alternative emergency phone numbers during a phone outage in July. (Dan Taekema/CBC)
Although Gallant couldn't share specifics, she said there is still certain criteria the RCMP needs to follow to send an alert.
And if an interruption to 911 calls met with the RCMP's criteria to send an alert, Gallant said they would do so.
"We have very specific criteria and policy on when we are allowed to send it."
RCMP relied on social media before alert system
Before Canada launched its text-based national alert system in 2018, RCMP considered social media to be the best way to communicate during a crisis.
Reviews of the 2014 shootings in Moncton, N.B., and on Parliament Hill found that Twitter was a critical tool for disseminating real-time information to the public and media as both incidents were unfolding.
When a shooting broke out on Fredericton's north side on Aug. 10, 2018, the Fredericton Police Force also relied on Twitter to update the public on the events of that morning.
Mounties in Nova Scotia were under scrutiny for not issuing an emergency alert as a gunman shot 22 people in numerous locations in central and northern parts of the province. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)
In a similar vein, Nova Scotia RCMP used Twitter to send out updates as a firearms complaint in the tiny coastal village of Portapique on the evening of April 18 evolved into a series of shooting and arson incidents across central and northern parts of the province.
It took Mounties in Nova Scotia 13 hours to craft an alert message before the gunman who shot 22 victims was fatally shot by police.
Gallant said she's aware of the concerns raised about public communication during these particular incidents.
But she said an alert would be issued as soon as criteria was met and RCMP received accurate information.
"We have very good criteria and policies surrounding when and how to send the alerts and I'm quite confident in the RCMP's ability on the system."
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/rcmp-post-video-evidence-on-youtube-1.702843
RCMP post video evidence on YouTube
New Brunswick RCMP are using the video sharing website YouTube in an attempt to capture an arsonist.
"We want to get this video to as many people as possible in the shortest period of time," said RCMP Sgt. Maurice Comeau on Friday.
This is the first time the RCMP in New Brunswick have used You Tube to help solve a case, Comeau said. "We're being innovative and using the latest technology available."
Police have been investigating a series of six apparent arsons in the Petitcodiac area, southwest of Moncton. The first blaze was in June and the most recent was set on Dec. 31.
The fires have been set to a camp, a building, a house construction site and garages. Shots have also been fired at some homes on those properties.
The video evidence, caught by a surveillance camera at one of the fire sites, has been posted on YouTube on the hopes that someone will recognize a man in the pictures, Comeau said.
The footage from a home in Albert County shows a man throwing liquid from a gasoline container onto a building and then lighting it on fire.
https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-fall-of-the-salisbury-sopranos/
The fall of the Salisbury Sopranos
Marking their crime compound with a huge billboard didn’t help
Known in the local press as the “Salisbury Sopranos,” the Tingley crime family is not what one would call discreet. Their compound, located in Salisbury, just outside of Moncton, N.B., is clearly marked by a large, purple billboard, which, aside from the skulls in the background, wouldn’t look out of place on a Nevada highway. “The Tingley Compound,” it reads, “What you see here . . . what you do here . . . what you hear here . . . STAYS HERE.”
Not any more. Last week, 100 RCMP officers stormed the compound and several other locations, arresting eight Tingley family members and laying 57 charges, including “conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, OxyContin, marijuana, contraband tobacco, weapons and firearms, and being members of an organized crime group,” say the police. The arrests capped a 14-month-long investigation which the police say was dogged by a lack of co-operation from witnesses who were intimidated by the notorious Tingley twins, 54-year-old brothers Roger and Rodney, who head up the clan. “Nobody wanted to mess with them,” says RCMP Sgt. Maurice Comeau.
The Tingleys have become well-known locally for their escalating dispute with another local family, the Hoppers. In one incident earlier this year, Rodney’s son Michael Tingley was charged with threatening and assaulting one of the Hoppers. Leading up to the investigation, the Tingleys grabbed the RCMP’s attention after a number of Hopper-owned properties were mysteriously destroyed by fire (though none of the latest charges are related to arson).
Bringing down the family “is a big victory for us and the community at large,” says Comeau. “It’s well overdue.” The locals are breathing a little easier, with the Tingleys behind bars and potentially facing lengthy prison sentences. As for the ominous billboard, that’s been taken down too.
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