Quebec's provincial police to train more officers in ground search after deaths of Carpentier girls

Quebec's provincial police is reviewing its protocols around searches for missing persons, nearly two years after two girls were killed by their father during a ground search operation.

Norah, 11, and Romy Carpentier, 6, were abducted by their father, Martin Carpentier, in July 2020.Following a highway car crash, he fled with them into a wooded area of Sainte-Apollinaire, Que., located about 45 kilometres southwest of Quebec City.

He killed them 18 hours later.

A Radio-Canada investigation recently revealed that both current and former members of the Sret du Qubec (SQ) felt the search for the girls was disorganized and didn't have enough officers on the ground to be effective.

Now, the SQ said it is training more officers in ground searches.

Patrick Blanger, the deputy director of the SQ, said the force will double the amount of ground search coordinators from two to four. It will also train three more dog handlers, bringing the total to 19.

About 60 more patrol officers across the province will be trained in ground searches as well, Belanger said, in addition to the 51 already dedicated and specialized in the field. The new patrol officers would be the first called to support those units.

"Over the coming weeks, [the SQ] will be trained and equipped accordingly to be able to intervene," Blanger said.

"We want to get this going as quickly as possible. It's something that will be up and running in mid-summer, late summer, early fall."

According to an internal note obtained by Radio-Canada, officers will also now only be assigned to ground searches once they have been properly trained for them.

That's in contrast to the Carpentier case, where highway officers with little training in combing forested areas were called in to assist in the search.

Blanger also said the SQ will change its internal structure so that in cases like that of Romy and Norah, there is one command post instead of two, so all the main decision-makers are together.

Despite the changes, Blanger said the tragedy in Saint-Apollinaire wasn't the reason for the SQ's sudden overhaul.

"Is the Carpentier affair the trigger for all this? I would tell you, no. We inevitably used it to learn," he said.

"However, given the considerable increase in the number of search missions, the Sret had no other choice but to adjust and improve its search service offer."

According to the SQ, missing persons cases have been on the rise, from 180 in 2018 to 428 in 2021.