Mother of late RCMP officer wants to see reform in justice system

Melanie Patton wants to see law enforcement officers in Canada protected more so they don’t end up dead on the job.

She’s the mother of the late Const. Shelby Patton, who died on June 12 in Wolseley after he was hit by a driver in a stolen truck.

Patton is calling for changes to policing and the justice system in the form of harsher penalties for offenders and repeat offenders and more police officers.

“I think that it was preventable and it’s also to protect members now,” Patton said Thursday. “Their lives could be in danger. We don’t want more members to fall,” she told Gormley.

Const. Patton worked out of the Indian Head RCMP detachment. His mother also works for the RCMP, in an Alberta office. She said the support she has received from the policing community since her son’s death has been “really wonderful.”

“It definitely keeps me going when I hear how some of them are saying things like I’m saying all the things they cannot say because they are a member,” she said.

Two suspects, a man and a woman, were arrested and charged with numerous offences relating to the constable’s death, including possession of a stolen vehicle, failing to stop at the scene of an accident and possession of methamphetamine.

Melanie Patton is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to put more preventative safety measures in place — measures she believes could have saved her son’s life. She sent a letter to Trudeau but has not heard back, and plans to begin a petition next.

After her son’s death, Patton said Trudeau promised to reach out to her family, but never did.

“I wanted to take the opportunity to talk to him about how this could have been prevented and how the government can help,” she said.

Patton said she feels the criminal justice system in Canada isn’t deterring offenders through punishment. She’s frustrated that the people who have been charged with her son’s death had criminal records and various criminal charges.

“We have repeat offenders getting away with this stuff all the time. I know that our courts are backlogged. I know that they say we have no room in cells and because of it, all of these charges are just getting dropped, they’re getting withdrawn, people are getting stay of proceedings (or) probations just with curfews,” she said. “This isn’t justice.”

She says change is needed, and while this wasn’t a mantle she expected to take up, she’s prepared to work towards it.

“I want to believe that it is possible,” she told Gormley.

Things like requiring two officers to always ride together in a vehicle and making jail more of a deterrent to potential offenders are some of the steps Patton wants to see taken.

“The more vocal that I become, the more that others speak up, perhaps if we stand together we can make a change,” she shared.

“I don’t want to believe that we cannot make a change.”