On Effective Policing
Would the RCMP have done a better job investigating Theresa's murder in the 1970s then the Surete du Quebec?
From inception the SQ were created to be traffic cops and riot busters. They were like the state highway patrol. In the late 70s, when the Parti Quebecois siezed control, the SQ broadened its mandate. But they were never given the funding to fulfill this mandate. And they didn't have any expertise in criminal investigation. Not to blame it all on higher government. The SQ certainly didn't help themselves - they could have sought out expertise, learned from others. But they have federalist leanings (look to the orgins of policing in French - Vidocq) and are thus completely insular by nature. Add to that the language stigma and you pretty much have an organization that operates with its ears stuff and its eyes shut.
posted by John Allore @ 2/16/2008 07:19:00 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Yes. The RCMP might have done a better job particularly in that part of the Townships.
The reality is that all the SQ and the municipal police went to the same school. It is just that the ones who shone stayed in the metropolitan areas and the ones who were not so accomplished got landed into the rural regions.
And in those days many of the rural municipal "law enforcers" were not trained at all.
Was language a factor in the reaction of the SQ at the time? PROBABLY.... and undoubtedly still is. Few speak understand English and less really want to understand it.
But the big fact that remains is that there was then, and continues to be, not nearly enough police presence in the rural areas. That is why the underground economy is flourishing out there. Lots of dirty money.
following it all
How the SQ and the RCMP can even be compared to each other is a mystery to me.
Granted the RCMP has been under fire a lot in the last few decades, and their Hollywood inspired image has been tarnished.
But can anyone tell me just one thing the SQ has done right in Theresa's case?
Anyone?
I think the RCMP WOULD have done a better job in this case..just because of its structure. Going up the ladder, there will always be someone to account to.
With the SQ, it seems to be a very closed system - in this case one investigator assigned (at this point) and the buck stops with him...taking it any higher is futile...he has 'ultimate authority' it seems"
I don't think language has anything to do with it - do you think the framcophone side gets any better treatment (look at Manon Dube, Louise Camirand...same shoddy investigating).
But particular to this case is the one lead investigator at the time 'Roch Gaudrault' who was on all 3 cases...performed equal unsatidfactory investigations on all 3 - either he was completely incompetetent, lazy or he was hiding something (like knowledge of who did it).
Look at the circumstances - heres a young detective in a rural area - faced with 3 murders of young women in his backyard...residents are scared...this guy would have been a local hero solving a triple homicide serial killer ...not only a 'savior' in the community but decorated by the SQ, guaranteed promootion within the SQ, pension, the talk circuit, consulting, etc....
But he chose to perform his lame so called 'investigative' work and 'closed' the cases with 2 out of 3 lame conclusions...not only Theresa with the inane 'drug-abuse' theory of his (and I knew Theresa personally...don't tell that to me!), Manon Dube's 'hit and run' theory even though she ws found 14 km from her home in a ditch!!! and thats what we KNOW about.
Say what you will about the SQ, it comes down to a crooked investigator...
So where is this 'local hero' now? Not with the SQ or any police force at the moment - he works as a "private eye" - probably the lowest form of ex-cop jobs you can have - spending his days sitting in car lurking in the shadows watching cheating lovers or CSST fraud claims. Why didn't he retire with the SQ? Either fired or quit - who knows?
It comes down to a bad investigator - who just happened to be the guy that was assigned to investigate Thereas's murder.. thats strike 1
This could have been a bad RCMP officer or a bad SQ or a bad Sherbrooke municipal cop or even a bad FBI agent ...it was a rotten apple.
What COMPOUNDS this case is the proetction of this guy and his findings by the SQ and powers that be TODAY. Why? Because if they uncovered a crooked cop from the 70's..they would have EVERY case he DID prsecute to deal with ..since any victims and accused that dealt with him would come out of the woodwork and cry "foul".
We tried to talk with Gaudrault, and I even offered to pay him for his hourly rate to help us continue on the investigation ...if he WAS a true cop, a REAL law enforcer, a REAL man ...he would have volunteered whatever he could so that justice might be served today - but he refuses to talk, refuses to talk about anything and despite extensive toxicology testing showing no drugs in Theresa during the autopsy..continues to state that this was a drug overdose
So I am sure the SQ 'knows' he is vermin and botched cases...but "leaving sleeping dogs lie" seems to be the order of the day
The SQ has no time to deal with the past....it is also not politically correct...they want to 'solve' todays, fresh cases - THAT makes news...old cold case files are of little interest to them
(Applause) (Applause) (Applause).
Sorry, don't know what the icon is for that.
Well said, SR.
Anon
Thank you, SR.
Thank you very much.
I believe you nailed it.
Careful with language. In no way am I saying (or have I EVER said). Language was an issue in the sense that Theresa was treated as a second class citizen because she was English (SR you're right, just look at the treatment Dube and Camirand got.).
The issue with language is this: it creates further isolationism if you're unwilling to share /learn from your neighbors (in this case Ontario, Maine, VT , NH and NB).
Dozens of unsolved murders in those northern states, but the SQ has never taken the time to review them because they can't communicate in the American idiom.
How useful is a database for tracking unsolved crimes if the English can't read the French information in SALVAC and the French can't read the ViCLAS data?
JJA
Who is the name
in which we're to blame
for bringing the SQ to shame?
Roch Gaudrault
Who is the dude
who's theories construed
to cause the whole case to get screwed?
Roch Gaudrault
Who is the doof
who destroyed all the proof
in order to hide from the truth?
Roch Gaudrault
JJA - you bring up a good point when it comes to sharing information. And I can see this being a potential problem with free roaming borders and the fugitives able to cross Canadian provincial borders winto a completely different 'culture and language' without leaving the country.
But in THIS particular case, how would sharing of information improved the outcome? There was no trans-border activity or border crime committed (that we know of in this case).
My opinion is that the sole root cause of failure in this case is the investigator involved. Pointe finale.
It doesn't matter if he was a francophone, anglophone, allophone or spoke swahili. He did a lousy job (bordering on a complete coverup) and thats that!
And besides that, he IS around today and no longer with the force and is a private citizen. He KNOWS that these cases leave grieving families and unhealed wounds.
How he can get up each morning and look at himself and realize that HE could have made a difference but chose not to.
HE botched up the investigations...and I don't think he was stupid. He knew something and just did not want to reveal what it was.
I sat with the man on TWO occasions in my living room. He had his drug theory case WHEN HE WAS JUST INVESTIGATING a disppearance!! No body, no toxicology, no evidence revealed yet. He told the Allores "go home and we'll find the body when the snow melts"....just what did he know at the time?
He KNEW that a body would turn up and he KNEW that he would use the drug abuse theory when it did.
When Roch came back to my place after the body was discovered in underwear and the toxicology reports were complete (which found NO traces of drugs) - he out and out lied to me. Despite his ongoing pushing about what I knew about Theresa's drug use, I questioned the absense of drug in the autopsy....his answer "they washed away over the winter". When I questioned about the underwear, his answer was "the massive currents can tear away a person's clothing" ...and as a young student, I believed what he said at the time.
I later discovered that drugs remain in a body and have been discovered YEARS later even after putrification and enterrment have occurred and even after embalming!! Theresa's body despite lying there for 5 months was pretty well preserved...enough to be visibly identified by family and friends in the morgue. The autopsy even revealed the SANDWICH she ate that day! Drugs surely would have been discovered IF THEY WERE there. But Roch lied ...out and out.
And the second piece of misinformation - about clothes being torn off...bodies have been found after batting around in the OCEAN for months ..still fully clothed. Did anyone see the so-called 'river' Theresa was found in? Check it out. Its closer to a "bog" than a river ...the 'mad current that was powerful to rip off a young girls clothes" according to Gaudrault...hardly moved the stick I threw it that water a foot in an hour!
And when some residents found Theresa's wallet on the side of a road, Roch's explanation was that "animals brought it there"
Its laughable what this guy came up with...but its all very very true!
The crux of this case is that man. I don't say that he had anything to do with Theresa's murder, but I am sure he KNEW just who might have done it...and decided to protect that person instead of doing his job entrusted to him by the community. As I said - solving a triple-murder within a small community...this guy would have been a SAINT and a decorated hero with a guaranteed promotion to master detective and lifelong career in tghe SQ..but he chose to coverup, hide, lie and deceive.
And today he drives an old car for a private investigator firm and basically 'waits in the shadows' watching people slip up to their married spouses or CSST....thats one step up from security guard!
Let me say this again - Mr Gaudrault...you charge per hour for your time? I offer to pay you (up to a thousand per hour if you want) to sit down with John Allore and one or more investigators of John's choosing, and tell us what you know of the events of 1978.
You are a private citizen now. You are allowed to talk about events in your career - and we have even passed the statute of limitations. I am offering you cold hard cash ...tell John and his team what you know. I am not interested in the whys and wherefores and reasons and motivations ...give the Allore family and John who has worked so hard on this case for years...the answers that they deserve.
Come clean. We cannot change the past or bring Theresa back. But I think the Allore family has a qualified reason for information so that they can put this case to rest.
Mr Gaudrault - you never lost a daughter or a sister to an unsrupulous murderer. You will never know how it tears your life apart forever.
The original crime has already been committed and we have all learned to deal with it.
But your silence at this point is ANOTHER crime. I want to forgive you. The Allores want to forgive you. And whatever you believe in, I know that God wants to forgive you.
Come forward and come clean.
Tell it all, Brother!
Maybe Mr. Gaudreau has no conscience. Do you Mr. Gaudreau?
Well written SR. It needed to be said.
Post a Comment
<< Home