Crisis team to be based in Waterloo detachment

Neighbourhood Watch program moving out of station

WATERLOO REGION — A program where mental health workers join officers on police calls is expanding so that the workers will serve all detachments.

The mobile crisis team, which started locally five years ago, is now working out of two Waterloo Regional Police detachments, in Kitchener and Cambridge.

As of Aug. 1, they will have office space in Waterloo when the Waterloo Region Neighbourhood Watch moves out. The seven mental health professionals on the crisis team, including nurses and addiction workers, will operate out of the Waterloo detachment.

The specialized crisis team is a collaboration between police and the Canadian Mental Health Association that began in 2013. Under the program, front-line officers respond to mental health calls accompanied by mental health workers.

The program is highly effective, and allows officers to focus on crime and the workers to focus on mental health issues, said Supt. Daryl Goetz.

In almost nine out of 10 calls where mental health workers accompany police, the situation is resolved without someone having to be admitted to hospital under the Mental Health Act.

“Mental health calls are outstripping our ability to attend to them,” Goetz said, adding that mental health workers with police are better able to diffuse a situation.

“We are better suited to tackle the criminal-type issues and crime prevention,” he said.

Police say they aren’t shutting down the Neighbourhood Watch program, which has existed for more than 30 years. But they say it’s an antiquated program that relies on an automated phone call to landlines.

Instead, police are asking that the community-based program use more current ways to communicate with neighbourhoods, such as email, social media platforms or the website.

It takes seven days for the system to get one message out to 25,000 phone numbers in the database, Goetz said.

In 2018, Neighbourhood Watch has put out only one message, saying the program was ending.

“There were no updates on crime. To us, that is not effective,” he said.

But Neighbourhood Watch administrator Marietta Gassewitz said some members don’t have computers and can’t access messages online.

“It’s sad to see the community not having access to this program,” she said. “They want the phone calls.”

Goetz said police need the office space for the crisis team, but the police service is in no way doing away with the program.

Police are suggesting Neighbourhood Watch take six months to reorganize to see how it can best serve neighbourhoods.

lmonteiro@therecord.com, Twitter: @MonteiroRecord