Deputy minister defends arming sheriffs and safety enforcement officers

Sheriffs and commercial vehicle enforcement officers need sidearms as personal protection to do their work safely, New Brunswick's deputy minister for public safety says.

Over the next three years, the department said about 150 New Brunswick sheriffs and safety enforcement officerswill be able to carry them. The requirement only applies to officers assigned to roadside checks, and officerswill not lose their jobs for refusing to carry a gun.

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Mike Comeau said a recent risk analysisrevealed the work of peace officers on highways, roadside and mobile units does "bear some risk, as demonstrated across North America," and recognized that commercial vehicle enforcement officersdo more than just interact with commercial vehicles.

"We don't want to wait until there's a tragic incident to allow them the tools and the training they need," he said.

We can't be complacent about the safety of our peace officers.- Mike Comeau, deputy public safety minister

Comeau said officers working the mobile units on main roads and back roads across New Brunswick are pulling over drivers that aren't always expecting to have interaction with law enforcement.

He said the officers are also increasingly assisting police officers with road safety operations, where an entire team of law enforcement officers are stopping all kinds of traffic such as licence and registration checks.

"Those kinds of activities have a little more risk in 2017 than they did in 1952 or 1982," he said.

"We can't assume there are no bad people that are armed, that are going to be very upset depending on what they're transporting in their vehicles to have an interaction that they weren't expecting with a peace officer."

Already have protective gear

For several years, Comeau said peace officershave had a range of personal protective equipment, including handcuffs, pepper spray,batons and protective vests.

"We can't be complacent about the safety of our peace officers."

But he said the incidents that require such gear are very few.

Comeau said he also doesn't know if there has been an incident where firearms would have been necessary in commercial vehicle enforcement.

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The news that some officers are now carrying guns comes on the heels ofincreased scrutiny of possible organized crime activity in the province, including the recentarrest of a high-ranking member of the Hells Angels in Woodstock.

In a previous interview withCBC News, Jean Sauvageau,a criminology professor at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, said crime rates have been dropping for 25 years across Canada, and New Brunswick is already below average.

"So where exactly the impetus is behind this is hard to fathom in that context," he said.

No public consultation

About 30 officers in the motor vehicle enforcement branch already carry guns after completing training and certification in the spring of 2017.

Comeausaid the latest decision came out of discussion among workers, experts and the union.

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The process was similar to one in 1983, when conservation officers were given sidearms, he said.

"[We] agreed with the employees that were raising the concern that their personal protective equipment should now include sidearms," he said.