O. Reg. 393/23: ACTIVE ATTACKER INCIDENTS

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Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019

ONTARIO REGULATION 393/23

ACTIVE ATTACKER INCIDENTS

Consolidation Period: From April 1, 2024 to the e-Laws currency date.

No amendments.

This is the English version of a bilingual regulation.

CONTENTS

 

Interpretation

Definitions

1. In this Regulation,

“active attacker” means an individual who appears to be engaged in, attempting to engage in, or about to engage in an attack where there is reason to suspect that,

(a)  the attack will be sustained,

(b)  the attacker will cause serious bodily harm or death to other individuals, and

(c)  the attacker will continue to attack more individuals if the attacker is not stopped; (“assaillant actif”)

“police service’s area of policing responsibility” and “policing needs of the community” have the same meaning as in Ontario Regulation 392/23 (Adequate and Effective Policing (General)) made under the Act. (“secteur de responsabilité en matière de services policiers du service de police”; “besoins de la collectivité en matière de services policiers”)

Standards in Responding to Incidents Involving an Active Attacker

Immediate deployment

2. (1) Police officers shall be deployed immediately to an incident involving an active attacker.

(2) The response priorities in an incident involving an active attacker are to do the following in the following order:

1.  To stop the active attacker.

2.  To preserve life.

3.  To restore order.

Assistance to victims

3. (1) Assistance shall be provided to victims of an active attacker and their families as soon as possible, including the provision of referrals that are appropriate in the circumstances to emergency services, health care professionals, victim support agencies, social service agencies and other appropriate governmental, non-governmental or community organizations.

(2) If the chief of police considers it necessary in the circumstances, an area shall be established for the purpose of providing victims and their family members and friends with information on survivors and death notifications.

(3) An area established under subsection (2) shall be established away from the incident location and, to the extent possible, in a location that is not accessible to persons who are not victims or their family members or friends, or to the media.

(4) If the chief of police considers it necessary in the circumstances, a separate area shall be established for the media.

Note: Subsection 4 (1) comes into force on April 1, 2025, the first anniversary of the day that section 1 comes into force.

Equipment

4. (1) Every police officer who performs community patrol functions shall be issued at least one tourniquet and at least one pressure bandage or trauma dressing.

Note: Subsection 4 (2) other than paragraph 4 of subsection 4 (2) comes into force on April 1, 2025, the first anniversary of the day that section 1 comes into force.

(2) Every police officer who performs community patrol functions and who may be required to respond to an incident involving an active attacker shall have ready access to the following equipment:

1.  A battering ram.

2.  Bolt cutters.

3.  A Halligan tool.

Note: Paragraph 4 of subsection 4 (2) comes into force on April 1, 2026, the second anniversary of the day that section 1 comes into force.

4.  A reasonable number, as determined by the chief of police in accordance with subsection (3), of semi-automatic rifles.

Note: Subsection 4 (3) comes into force on April 1, 2026, the second anniversary of the day that section 1 comes into force.

(3) In making a determination under paragraph 4 of subsection (2), the chief of police shall consider at least the following factors:

1.  The policing needs of the community.

2.  The geographic characteristics of the police service’s area of policing responsibility.

3.  The extent to and manner in which incidents involving an active attacker are effectively responded to in similar communities in Ontario.

4.  The extent to which past responses to incidents involving an active attacker by the police service have been effective.

5.  Best practices respecting responses to incidents involving an active attacker.

Note: Subsection 4 (4) comes into force on April 1, 2025, the first anniversary of the day that section 1 comes into force.

(4) A police officer is considered to have ready access to the equipment listed in subsection (2) if the equipment is in a motor vehicle that can be reasonably expected to arrive promptly at the location of an incident involving an active attacker.

Note: Subsection 4 (5) comes into force on April 1, 2025, the first anniversary of the day that section 1 comes into force.

(5) The following equipment must be stored in every motor vehicle that is being used by police officers performing community patrol functions:

1.  At least one manually-operated tool that can be used to gain entry into a locked or barricaded structure, such as a battering ram, bolt cutters, an axe, a pry bar, a sledgehammer or a Halligan tool.

2.  For each officer performing community patrol functions who is using the motor vehicle, body armour that, at a minimum, meets the standards for Type III body armour as classified by the National Institute of Justice’s Ballistic Resistance of Body Armor NIJ Standard-0101.06, as amended from time to time.

Duties of Chiefs of Police

Arrangements to ensure coordinated responses

5. (1) Every chief of police shall take reasonable steps to develop partnerships with external service providers to facilitate the provision of assistance to victims following an incident involving an active attacker, including concluding arrangements to facilitate the provision of appropriate referrals to health care professionals, victim support agencies, social service agencies and other appropriate governmental, non-governmental or community organizations.

(2) Arrangements concluded under subsection (1) must provide that, whenever possible, assistance shall be provided from a centralized location or common virtual platform.

(3) The chief of police shall publicize how victims of an incident involving an active attacker can access the services that are being provided under an arrangement concluded under subsection (1).

(4) Every chief of police shall take reasonable steps to conclude arrangements to ensure a coordinated response with emergency medical services and fire departments to incidents involving an active attacker.

(5) Every chief of police shall take reasonable steps to ensure that, at least every two years, members of the police service, including communications personnel, participate in scenario-based active attacker response training and exercises together with emergency medical services and fire departments.

(6) The development of training and exercises under subsection (5) shall be informed by applicable best practices, and by recommendations for improvements contained in reports prepared under section 9.

Public alerts and other information dissemination

6. (1) Every chief of police shall ensure that the police service has the ability to issue public alerts in order to provide information to the public about incidents involving an active attacker, including the nature of the incident and any steps that the public should take, using,

(a)  an emergency alert system that delivers alerts through television, radio and wireless devices; and

(b)  social media notifications.

(2) Every chief of police shall ensure that the police service has means of communicating non-urgent information respecting an incident involving an active attacker to the public on request, and shall ensure that the public is made aware of those means.

Response procedures

7. Every chief of police shall establish procedures for responding to incidents involving an active attacker, which must address the following:

1.  Communications in relation to incidents involving an active attacker, including procedures regarding the following:

i.  Notifying appropriate communications supervisory personnel.

ii.  Dispatching community patrol officers and community patrol supervisory personnel.

iii.  Issuing a broadcast to members of the police service.

iv.  Requesting specialized personnel, as necessary, including tactical units, canine teams, containment teams and explosive disposal technicians.

v.  Notifying emergency medical services and fire departments, as necessary.

vi.  Notifying appropriate duty and senior command staff.

vii.  Notifying other police services, as required.

viii.  Notifying the public using the emergency alert system and social media.

2.  Responses by the police officers who initially respond to the incident, including procedures regarding the following:

i.  Assessing the scene and confirming whether there is an active attacker.

ii.  Attempting to stop the active attacker.

iii.  Relaying relevant information about the incident to communications personnel, including information regarding the active attacker, the attacker’s last known location and direction of travel, whether the attacker has weapons, recommended entry point for the contact team and required resources.

3.  Responses by off-duty police officers who wish to assist in responding to the active attacker, including a requirement that they attend identified staging areas for the assignment of any duties.

4.  Responsibilities for exercising command in response to the incident, including procedures regarding the following:

i.  Identifying an interim commander and transferring command to another police officer assigned to assume command, if necessary.

ii.  Setting up containment of the scene.

iii.  Establishing areas of staging and command, casualty collection points, zones of operation and perimeters and performing ongoing assessment of the security risks of such areas.

iv.  Evaluating ingress and egress routes to ensure they are clear for ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

v.  Deploying necessary resources.

vi.  Gathering and communicating ongoing intelligence.

vii.  Transitioning from responding to an active attacker to responding to another type of situation, such as a hostage taking, and making required changes in tactics.

viii.  Obtaining updates on all police, emergency medical services and fire department personnel deployed to the incident.

ix.  Concluding the response operation.

5.  Responses by police officers who are acting as a team to make contact with the active attacker, including procedures regarding the following:

i.  Entering the area where the active attacker is believed to be located.

ii.  Attempting to locate and isolate the active attacker.

iii.  Attempting to stop the active attacker.

iv.  Communicating officers’ actions and any other relevant information to communications personnel.

v.  Advising communications personnel when a threat is no longer present.

6.  Rescue efforts, including procedures regarding the following:

i.  Rescuing and recovering casualties once the active attacker has been stopped or when sufficient resources exist.

ii.  Co-ordinating actions with other responding police officers and emergency medical services and fire department personnel.

iii.  Making a determination as to whether to move casualties to a location where first aid or medical treatment can be safely provided until the active attacker has been stopped or the situation has been stabilized.

iv.  Communicating with medical personnel and providing first aid.

v.  Requesting additional support for rescue activities, if necessary.

vi.  Providing alternative means of transport for casualties, including transport by members of the police service, if necessary.

vii.  Protecting emergency medical and fire department personnel and transporting them to known casualty locations in order to provide on-scene triage of casualties and emergency medical treatment and remove casualties from the incident location.

7.  Responding to incidents involving an active attacker at schools and any other locations the chief of police believes are at an elevated risk of such an incident occurring, including procedures regarding the following:

i.  How emergency protocols and resources of schools and the other locations should be accounted for in the response to the active attacker.

ii.  Liaising with school or other applicable authorities at the scene of the incident.

Report following incident

8. (1) If the members of a police service respond to an incident involving an active attacker, the police service’s chief of police shall prepare a report reviewing and evaluating the police service’s response to the incident, which must include the following:

1.  General information regarding the incident, including the nature of the incident, the date, time, duration and location of the incident, including whether the incident began in one location and ended in another, and the nature or characteristics of the location in which the incident occurred.

2.  Specific information regarding the active attacker, including information regarding any weapons, ammunition or explosives owned or used by the attacker, any criminal history or history of violence, whether the attacker shared information about the incident or plans for the incident, and the tactics used by the attacker during the incident.

3.  The type of police service and other first responder personnel involved in responding to the incident, and their role in the response.

4.  Details on the response to the incident, including the use of communication, intelligence, tactics, and equipment.

5.  An analysis of the outcome of the incident, including elements of the response that were effective and elements that were not effective, and recommendations for improvements, including matters to be addressed through changes to procedures and training.

6.  The impact of the incident and the police service’s response to the incident as it related to, as applicable, victims, the community, the police service and its members, another police service and any other first responders.

(2) If members of different police services respond to an incident involving an active attacker, subsection (1) applies only with respect to the chief of police of the police service with policing responsibility in the area in which the incident occurred, but that chief of police shall consult with the chiefs of police of the other police services in preparing the report.

(3) If an incident involving an active attacker occurs in two or more police services’ areas of policing responsibility, the chiefs of police of those police services may jointly prepare a report for the purposes of subsection (1), and this section applies with necessary modifications with respect to the joint report.

(4) The chief of police shall prepare the report within 120 days after,

(a)  the day of the incident, if there is no Special Investigations Unit investigation into the incident; or

(b)  if there is a Special Investigations Unit investigation into the incident, the day on which public notice in respect of the incident is given under section 33 of the Special Investigations Unit Act, 2019 or a report is published in respect of the incident under section 34 of that Act, as the case may be.

(5) If the chief of police is unable to complete the report within the time specified in subsection (4), the chief of police shall notify the police service board or, in the case of the Commissioner, the Minister of the status of the report every 30 days, until the report is complete.

(6) The chief of police shall give the police service board or, in the case of the Commissioner, the Minister the report within 30 days of its completion.

(7) The police service board or the Minister shall publish the report on the internet.

(8) Any redaction of the information in the report before its publication by the police service board or the Minister is subject to the following rules:

1.  The police service board or Minister shall consult with the chief of police respecting any proposed redaction.

2.  If consulted in accordance with paragraph 1, the chief of police shall advise the police service board or Minister respecting the proposed redaction. If the chief of police was required under subsection (2) to consult with the chiefs of police of other police services in preparing the report, the chief of police shall consult with them respecting the proposed redaction before advising the police service board or Minister.

3.  The police service board or Minister shall not redact any information in the report that would be required to be disclosed in response to a request for access under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act or the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, as the case may be.

9. Omitted (provides for coming into force of provisions of this Regulation).

 

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