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Date 3-9-06
Contact Christopher Mapp 601.266.4497
Hattiesburg—The police department at the University of Southern Mississippi
exchanged training techniques and gifts of gratitude on Thursday
with a group of visiting law enforcement students from Canada.
About 20 students
from Notre Dame De Foy and the College of Francois-Xavier-Garneau
in Quebec stopped in Hattiesburg at the tail of a five-day trip
to the region to learn about the American criminal justice system.
The group presented Southern Miss Chief of Police Bob Hopkins with
a special gift from Canada, a T-shirt signed by a citizen with words
of thanks and encouragement regarding the force’s remarkable performance
during and after Hurricane Katrina.
“It’s always
important to interact with our brothers and sisters in law enforcement,
especially from other countries. You can always learn new things
from each other,” said Southern Miss Chief of Police Bob Hopkins.
The students
were given a tour of the Southern Miss police department by Hopkins,
who explained the added security precautions like bullet proof glass
and cameras installed at the facility were put in place after the
terrorist attacks of 9-11.
“These precautions
are put in place not to make us any less friendly, but because if
we lost what’s in here,” he said, pointing at the dispatch window
and the station beyond, “we’d be out of business.”
On behalf of
the university police department, Hopkins received a T-shirt from
Sgt. Alain Gelly, director of the Ville De Levis Police Department.
Depicting a policeman with angel wings standing watch over two children,
the T-shirt bore a personally inscribed message on the back saying
“Stay Strong Guys!” and an e-mail address from the sponsor in Quebec.
The group concluded their visit to the Southern Miss department
by checking out the force’s Harley Davidson motorcycles.
“Since we’d
visited Southern Miss in the past, we had a special attachment.
That’s why when Katrina happened, we wanted to find a way to express
the sorrow and compassion in our hearts for our brethren in law
enforcement in this region,” Gelly said, adding that the T-shirts
were sold for $5 dollars to citizens, students and police officers
in Quebec.
In all, the
Canadians distributed about 350 of the T-shirts to law enforcement
personnel during their travels to the Gulf Coast and the Hattiesburg
area. On the coast, the group sent a team of divers into the Gulf
of Mexico along with members of the Harrison County police department.
Another highlight
of the trip, at least for student Alexandre Lebrun of Boucherville,
Quebec, was firing an M-16 semi-automatic weapon at a firing range
on the coast. “That was the first time I’d ever fired an M-16. It
was fun. In Canada, we don’t have the same kind of armed culture.
It’s a completely different mentality,” said the former economics
student who gave up a career managing mutual funds to follow his
boyhood dream of becoming a police officer.
In the Pine
Belt region, the group visited the sheriffs departments in Lamar
and Forrest counties, a foreign concept in Canadian law enforcement,
said Southern Miss forensics instructor Dean Bertram.
“Up there, they
only have municipal, state and federal agencies. They have never
seen anything like a sheriff’s department, where there might only
be three or four employees,” Bertram said.
Bertram said
next year a group of Southern Miss criminal justice students will
reciprocate the visit by traveling to Quebec.
Click to enlarge
CANADIAN LAW ENFORCEMENT: A group of criminal justice students from Quebec pose with University of Southern Mississippi Chief of Police Bob Hopkins(holding T-shirt in front, with mustache and glasses) and forensic science instructor Dean Bertram (in yellow shirt, front) outside the Southern Miss police department Thursday. (Public relations photo by Steve Rouse)
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