Police had co-ordination problems
Communications difficulties hindered deployment of security
During the downtown chaos of Oct. 22, police chased 13 different reports of suspects on the loose around Parliament Hill.
There were two possible shooters on the roof of Centre Block. More shootings at the House of Commons’ executive offices at 131 Queen St., at the Rideau Centre, at the corner of Metcalfe and Sparks. An “unidentified” boat was lurking in the Ottawa River beneath the Supreme Court of Canada building.
Seconds after terrorist gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau raced into Centre Block, as many as seven RCMP officers stopped outside the main doors, “due to a directive never to enter the building armed.” An NCO soon arrived and ordered them in.
RCMP radios could not communicate with those of Ottawa police or the House and Senate security staffs. Cross-talk had to go through an operational command post, at a time when fast communications was essential, especially for deploying resources.
The National Capital Region Crisis Command Centre (NCRCC) is a permanent, central facility directed by the RCMP to handle decision-making and response co-ordination for major events and emergencies. It includes representatives from local police and other agencies.
Crisis management is rarely without difficulty. And the command post struggled, too, that day. Among other things, there was a “lack of clarity” over which organization had the authority to issue and lift the lock-down orders for government and other buildings. Opacity blurred whether the crisis was an RCMP national security investigation or an Ottawa police criminal investigation.
The frontline joint RCMP, House and Senate security response was hampered by long-standing systemic problems co-ordinating their actions.
The details come from an internal
The security framework … make it extremely difficult for all three agencies involved to provide a proper service.
RCMP “after-action” report and an independent Ontario Provincial Police investigation into the RCMP’s security posture on Parliament Hill obtained by the Citizen.
Dozens of recommendations for change have been redacted. But that alone is a measure of how many things didn’t go right, or at least smoothly as hoped, and an apparent new-found collective will from police, parliament and government to finally fix them.
Three separate security forces — RCMP and House and Senate security plus Ottawa police — are responsible for different aspects of security for the Hill and its surroundings.
With the exception of the strong RCMP- Ottawa Police working relationship, the Oct. 22 response was “limited” by deficiencies in joint emergency training, pre-incident planning, outdated equipment, communications problems, lack of information sharing, the 2012 federal budget cuts to RCMP resources and a practice of limited interaction between the Mounties, House security and Senate security, according to the OPP.
“The security framework both for the grounds and the buildings of Parliament Hill make it extremely difficult for all three agencies involved to provide a proper service, leaving this area vulnerable and very difficult to protect,” it concludes.
May’s federal budget formally committed to a new, unified Parliamentary Protective Service under RCMP command and reporting to the Speakers of each house, plus $39 million more for security upgrades.