Vcops Police

[Lola Maroun]

TheCode includes the right to be offered support when a victim reports a crime to the police. This includes an initial victim needs assessment which helps identify those who are entitled to receive enhanced rights.

There are 12 different rights that victims have in the updated Code. For each of these there is an explanation of what this means for the police officers and staff that are supporting them, and how this can be put into practice.

Within five working days (one working day for victims entitled to enhanced rights) of the crime being reported, they must tell the victim about how to claim compensation for any loss, damage or injury caused as a result of crime.

Officers and staff must, within five working days (one working day for victims with enhanced rights) of a key decision point in the investigation, update victims about the decisions and where applicable explain it to them.

Once it has been decided that a case is going to court, a Witness Care Unit must update a victim with certain information about the hearing (within five working days for all cases, within one working day under enhanced rights).

The victim has a right to be paid certain expenses by the Crown Prosecution Service if they attend court and give evidence. If the police took any of their property as evidence, victims have the right to get it back as soon as it is no longer required.

Police officers and staff should carefully consider the need to continue to retain a victim's property and whether it is absolutely necessary and, if not, be proactive in returning property without delay.

Being without your belongings longer than is necessary, as well as being an inconvenience, can add to the trauma of what has happened. Therefore, be mindful of the necessity of retaining a victim's property.

Where eligible, a victim or bereaved family members have the right to be provided with information about the offender and at key stages of their sentence. Where relevant, victims also have a right to be consulted by the police if an offender makes an application for a review of their sex offender notification requirements.

If eligible, the Witness Care Unit or Youth Offending Team will automatically refer the victim (or bereaved family member) to the National Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme. This must happen within 10 working days of sentencing. A victim has the right to be automatically referred.

The police should contact the victim whenever an offender makes an application to review their Sex Offender Notification Requirements, and allow them to provide their views on the application. Where appropriate, the victim's views should be considered.

The Cote Saint-Luc Council Chamber was the safest venue in the city last evening as over 70 members of the Citizens on Patrol group turned out for the annual year-end Chanukah-Christmas Holiday celebration. I was the lucky emcee for the evening and did my best to solicit a little laughter, poke a little fun and toss a lot of accolades to these amazing volunteers.

The evening was highlighted by words of praise by Public Safety Director Jordy Reichson, Station 9 Police Commander Marc Cournoyer and his Lieutenant Jean-Pierre Theoret, City Manager Tanya Abramovitch and a special appearance by Dr. Joe Schwartz, a Cote Saint-Luc resident whose wife is a vCOP.

Director Reichson also noted that vCOP has been singled out as unique among cities and boroughs throughout the region with calls coming in from across Quebec seeking to understand our winning formula.

I salute Senior Supervisor Lewis Cohen for his endless hours of dedication to the vCOP program. Lewis remains available to command the troops 247, nearly 365 days a year, ensuring the fleet of minivans is ready, bikes and scooters are in proper shape during warmer months, that the office is stocked with equipment and supplies and that all elements are running smoothly for our volunteers.

Mitchell Herf, the third supervisor, oversees training and logistics. Together they manage in their free time to steer another half dozen officers, all of whom work to keep the 80 volunteers well trained, outfitted, motivated and covering as many shifts as possible at all times of days and night.

The team leaders handle day to day operations and logistics including training and continuing education, member issues, new program development, smoke detector brigade, vehicle and two-wheel upkeep, uniform inventory, office supply, radio communications, online support, PR and communications, special events, scheduling and more. Many, many thanks to all these fine officers. And of course thanks a million to each and every member of vCOP for their time, effort and dedication to our city and our neighbours.

A new program in collaboration with the Montreal Fire Department saw several vCOP members get trained in order to inspect smoke detectors. These additional volunteer resources ensured that several hundred homes were inspected this year, far more than the Fire Department could possibly do on its own, and contributed substantially to the safety of our residents.

On Tuesday night the Cote Saint-Luc volunteer Citizens on Patrol turned out in large numbers to City Hall. This was not an emergency civil preparedness drill. To the contrary, this was a festive gathering to thank our dedicated volunteers for their deep commitment in helping to keep our city safe.

Several members were recognized for going above and beyond the call of duty in terms of hundreds of hours of service during the year as well as for giving extra time to serve as team leaders and supervisors, handling administrative tasks, training of new members, continuing education of existing members, scheduling, vehicle maintenance and much more.

Bissonnette and Theoret have been staunch supporters of the vCOP program and through close collaboration between vCOP, police and CSL Public Security, Bissonnette reaffirmed that Cote Saint-Luc continues to be the safest community on the Island of Montreal.

Mayor Anthony Housefather was on hand to personally thank each vCOP on behalf of Cote Saint-Luc residents. The mayor has shown continuous support and much enthusiasm for the vCOP program since its inception six-and-a-half years ago.

Similarly, I had the pleasure of thanking our EMS volunteers at their holiday dinner just a few nights earlier. EMS troops dedicate hundreds of hours, 24/7, responding to some 3000 emergency medical calls each year. With enough volunteers at the ready, EMS has even responded to four simultaneous emergencies on several occasions this year.

At the vCOP celebration I also introduced Councillor Ruth Kovac as my partner in crime prevention. Ruth and I have been actively involved in emergency preparedness for over 30 years. Her husband, Peter, joined vCOP last year. Ruth prepared a poetic tribute to the vCOP members as well as to their spouses who give them the time to serve their city.

The Virginia Coalition of Police and Deputy Sheriffs (VCOPS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and advocating for law enforcement officers in Virginia. With over 25 years of experience, VCOPS provides training, grants, and consultation to improve the working conditions and professionalism of police officers throughout the state. They work on a state level to introduce legislation that benefits law enforcement and oppose measures that reduce their benefits.

VCOPS is not politically affiliated and supports individuals who prioritize the needs of working police officers and deputy sheriffs. They offer grants for law enforcement officers to attend Calibre Press Street Survival School and promote officer safety and survival. Through their annual fundraiser, VCOPS relies on public support to continue their programs and activities, respecting the decision of individuals to donate or not.

In a multimedia world there are so many new sources of evidence and far more policies to ensure standards are maintained, with compliance maintained by the introduction of ever more siloed checklists. It must be overwhelming for the relatively inexperienced officers who now form the backbone of frontline teams. Technology needs to lighten the load for them, not hinder them.

It is rare to hear police officers talking positively about the technology they are given. But officers in the 23 UK forces currently using Pronto often express their enthusiasm for the platform on social media and through customer engagement. The reason for this is simple: Pronto allows them to do their job thoroughly and in totality from anywhere, even without connectivity.

From a strategic perspective, new policies and legislation can be quickly incorporated into Pronto workflows, ensuring that areas of poor performance are quickly addressed. Here are some examples of how this is being successfully achieved by UK Pronto users.

Operational officers designed a Pronto workflow to deliver capabilities which were not available in the RMS. Now, when recording or updating a crime and selecting a classification, mandated Golden Hour actions are automatically created where the officer must record activity. Outstanding actions can be updated at any time, and outcome codes can only be applied on completion of a task.

Property can be searched for and recorded in various Pronto workflows. The process also integrates photographs for audit and integrity and barcode or QR code scanning. By completing property ingest in this way, it can be managed completely at the scene.

Merseyside Police aimed to increase efficiency by removing the paper seizure process of multimedia from third parties and digitising each step using Pronto. They created a new workflow that captures all pertinent information regarding exhibit video streams for evidentiary purposes, such as camera system, location, system owner and any record time real time discrepancies.

This method eliminates data duplication, since the information retrieved from the RMS search results of the crime are reused. In the future, Merseyside plan to improve the process further by automating a seizure and continuity proforma statement by using relevant data retrieved from the completed fields.

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