HAMILTON POLICE HAVE DESIGNATED USE OF FORCE TRAINING UNIT
All police officers in Ontario undergo use of force training at the Ontario Police College that includes de-escalation tactics and then take recertification courses annually that are run internally by police services. A spokesperson for Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Marie-France Lalonde said the government is establishing a new police response framework this summer that will guide the development of improved police training.
“We are committed to ensuring that de-escalation is central to police response to those in crisis, and that police officers have the necessary tools to defuse crisis situations,” Dorijan Najdovski said in an emailed statement.
The new framework will include enhanced use of force training both at OPC and new standards for in-house training at police services across the province, he said.
It’s being developed in partnership with mental health, civil liberties, and policing experts, and people with lived experience.
In Hamilton, there is a designated use of force training unit made up of HPS officers who run the training September to May each year. The curriculum includes provincial standards, but also looks at local scenarios.
Hamilton police declined a Spectator request to interview a use of force trainer, noting the sensitivity of speaking now so soon after the shooting. Under the Police Services Act, officers are trained “that they shall not draw a handgun, point a firearm or discharge a firearm unless he or she believes, on reasonable grounds, that to do so is necessary to protect against loss of life or serious bodily harm.”
The act also mandates that police have to record each time they use force, including drawing or using any weapons or physical force that results in a civilian needing medical attention.
According to the latest available annual report, Hamilton police used force 172 times in 2016 that included 18 shootings, all but one were to euthanize an injured animal. That one shooting was the Sept. 30, 2016, fatal shooting of Anthony Divers, 36.
This latest shooting death marks the sixth fatal police shooting in Hamilton in the last decade.
Following the inquest into the death of Steve Mesic, 45, shot to death by a Hamilton police officer in his backyard on June 7, 2013, police agreed to make changes to the mental health training officers receive. They also promised to study the use of lapel cameras — a recommendation they continue to study with no current implementation plans.
Two other men fatally shot by Hamilton police in recent years were in some sort of state of mental distress. This includes, Andreas Chinnery, 19, in 2011; and Soun Saing, 46, in 2007. Mental illness was not a factor in the 2012 death of Phonesay Chanthachack, 27, who was shot during a stakeout of a stolen van.