HALIFAX –
A report looking at the mapping program that the RCMP had access to – but was unable to open – during the 2020 mass shootings in Nova Scotia concludes that it may have helped curb the killer’s rampage .
The study by Brian Corbett, an analyst with the investigation, compared images of potential exits that RCMPs viewed on Google Earth with what they could see through Pictometry – a trade name at the time. for a program that uses high resolution aerial imagery .
The investigation learned that after killing 13 people in Portapique, NS, the gunman drove his replica police car along a narrow dirt road leading to three intersections that were initially untracked.
RCMP supervisors said they only chose to block the main road because the map images they used suggested smaller routes that could not be reached by car.
However, Corbett found that Pictometry “makes it clearer that these are driveable roads”, while the image on Google Earth “is not clear”.
After a map comparison of the main escape routes, Corbett writes, “The visualization will help the RCMP better understand the road network in Portapique, thereby enhancing containment efforts.” At the time, the program was called Pictometry, but now it’s called Eagleview, the name of the US parent company.
On April 18, 2020, at 10:32 p.m., when the first three Mounties walked into the community, Const. Vicki Colford was stationed at the intersection of the main road with the highway. A fifth RCMP officer arrived at the same location at 10:43pm
The investigation revealed that between 10:41 pm and 10:45 pm, the killer slid down Highway 2 and drove to an industrial park in Debert, NS, before killing nine more people on May 19. 4. According to investigative documents, the killer escaped on a dirt road next to a blueberry field at the southern end of Portapique, to a U-shaped detour connecting to the highway east of where Colford was stationed.
The first officer overseeing the response, Sgt. Brian Rehill, said in an interview with the inquest last year, the maps he saw showed “small cobbled streets,” but he believed there was only one route out of the land by umbrella. bowl. “That’s where I’ve set up all the containment measures,” he said.
Jen MacCallum, a supervisor at the RCMP’s Operations Media Center who worked with Rehill that night, said in an interview with the inquest that Pictometry “did not work that night. “
“I tried to get the password and everything worked, I couldn’t,” she said, adding that a “millennial tech guy” in her office couldn’t solve the problem either.
Staff Sgt. Addie MacCallum, a district commander in Pictou County who assisted that night, also said he was unable to open the Pictometry program at the RCMP headquarters in Bible Hill, where some incident supervisors were stationed for hours. head.
“I started trying to find Pictometry, which every detachment must have. I couldn’t find it, and (Staff Sergeant) Al Carroll (local area commander at the time) had no idea where it was. where… .. We ended up pulling a map off the wall. We put it on the table and started drawing hands on it,” he said.
Like Rehill, he says there seems to be only one way in and out of Portapique.
Tara Miller, an attorney who is participating in the investigation on behalf of a victim’s family member, said in an interview last week that it’s best to use programs during emergencies like the discharge. Mass gunfire should be a normal procedure for incident commanders.
“Those are key times to be able to lock Portapique and secure custody,” Miller said of the early stages when the killer was still in the wooded, rural area.
“If they have these resources, they’ll be able to access them in the crucial moments when they need it most,” she said.
Allan Ladouceur, superintendent of schools for Pictometry Canada Corp., a subsidiary of Eagleview Technology, said in an interview Tuesday that the RCMP has access to online training resources as part of the paper. allow them to use the web-based program.
Staff Sgt. Steve Halliday, another supervisor of the RCMP response, testified that when he was on duty, “having a belief” the road was the only way out.
He testified that it was only around 4:00 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. on April 19, when he saw a better map, that he realized the smaller roads might have allowed the killer to escape. exit “by off-road vehicle or whatever”. and he ordered the exits to be blocked by two Mounties.
Under Miller’s cross-examination last week, Halliday said, “Picture measurements will certainly provide … a clearer view, I think.”
Rob Gordon, a professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University, said in an interview last week that it is important for incident commanders to be properly trained in how to use programming technology. map.
Without a good map, he said, commanders “won’t be able to put everything together properly, unless they know the area really well.”
This Canadian Press report was first published on May 24, 2022.
