POLICE SHOOTINGS
Family of Durham man killed by officer wants province to make crisis intervention training mandatory,
The family of a man in crisis who was shot dead by police is calling on Ontario’s Attorney General to ensure that all police officers receive thorough training on crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques to reduce the risk of fatalities to those who are vulnerable due to mentalhealth issues.
“No one should die at the hands of police simply because they are not adequately trained,” said Joanne MacIsaac, the sister of Michael MacIsaac, a 47-year-old man who was killed in Ajax by a Durham police officer in December 2013.
MacIsaac and the Innocence Project made the request in a letter delivered Wednesday to Attorney General Yasir Naqvi and Community Safety Minister Marie-France Lalonde.
The letter asks for an immediate amendment to Section 44 of the Police Services Act. Currently, Section 44 demands that a police officer complete an initial period of training within six months of his or her appointment.
MacIsaac, who was working in conjunction with the Innocence Project, is demanding that the required training “include training with respect to crisis intervention and de-escalation of conflicts with individuals who are or may be mentally ill and individuals in crisis.”
“I believe that if the officer who killed my brother had the type of training that we’re proposing today, Michael would still be alive,” said MacIsaac.
Lalonde said that the government is committed to reviewing the police training program and enhancing it.
“We’re looking at the possibilities of giving other tools to officers who have to interact everyday with our most vulnerable population,” said Lalonde.
At present, all police officers in Ontario receive comprehensive use-of-force training and part of that training includes de-escalation. As a requirement, all police officers have to go through this training every year.
“We need to make sure the training component at (police) colleges moving forward is adequate in terms of the 2017 reality,” she said.
Naqvi said the province is already working to update the Police Services Act but did not say whether that would include the change requested by the group.
“Part of the work is looking at training, looking at how police interact with people with mental-health issues and techniques and strategies around de-escalation,” he said.
On the day MacIsaac’s brother was shot, he was experiencing the delirious aftermath effects of a seizure. While naked, he ran to a neighbour’s house and broke off the leg of a patio table. An officer, responding to the disturbance, asked him to drop his weapon. He shot at him after he refused to drop the table leg in an interaction that lasted 12 seconds.
Training might not have changed the outcome, said Karolina Visic, a caseworker with the Innocence Project at Osgoode Hall. “But what training does is give you a mindset: ‘OK this man, he’s naked, it’s December, there’s snow, its cold. There’s probably something not right here’,” she said.
“(The police officer) could’ve taken a step back, he could’ve gone around his car, he could’ve created space, created time,” Visic said. “Training would provide that mindset.” The Police Services Act has not been reformed in 27 years. Police recruits are required to complete a 12-week basic training program, but there is no standardized training afterwards.