Police reach for guns less often
Report shows significant decrease in use of force by Hamilton officers
Hamilton police saw a significant decrease in incidents where officers used force last year, compared to the previous 15 years.
The 172 reported incidents where officers used force in 2016 is the lowest in all of the 16 years captured in a report that goes before the police services board Friday.
That’s down from 208 in 2015 and a high of 317 in 2005. No other year in the 16 years captured was below the 200 mark.
In particular, shootings, use of pepper spray and hard-impact force, which includes punches and kicks, are also at their lowest for the recorded period.
Police are bound to record all incidents where forced is used, including when a gun is drawn in the presence of a member of the public.
Hamilton police generally do not comment on reports before they are presented to the board and could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
In all, there were 18 incidents where a Hamilton police officer discharged a firearm last year. The next lowest total was 30 in 2015.
According to the report, the most common reason police fire their gun is to euthanize an injured animal. Last year, this included all but one of the shootings — the Sept. 30 fatal shooting of Tony Divers on James Street South.
The reduction in shootings follows public scrutiny around police force and, in particular, how police deal with people in crisis.
In 2014, retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci released 84 recommendations in a report on how Toronto police deal with those in crisis. He was tasked with the review following the July 2013 Toronto police shooting death of Sammy Yatim.
In Hamilton, five people have been fatally shot by police in the last decade, including the 2016 Divers shooting, which the Special Investigations Unit is still probing.
In a separate report released in April, Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Michael Tulloch made 129 recommendations aimed at improving police oversight in Ontario, including for the SIU to release reports on officer-involved deaths, and 120-day limits on SIU investigations where possible.
Hamilton Police Association president Clint Twolan says the service has always employed deescalation techniques.
Twolan said he’s glad to see numbers down, but also says it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why.
“The very last thing any officer wants is to pull their gun and shoot somebody,” he said, adding he also doesn’t want officers to second guess themselves in a dangerous situation and potentially put themselves at risk.
The use of Tasers by Hamilton police has grown in recent years as the service now has 700 officers qualified to carry conducted energy weapons.
Police used Tasers 143 times last year and 145 times in 2015. For instance, on Monday evening police deployed a Taser on a man wanted on outstanding warrants for assault who allegedly started fighting officers who were arresting him.
In the report going to the police board Friday, police also provide more detail about when force is used. For instance, Hamilton officers used force during high-risk arrests where a person is believed to have had a weapon 75 times in 2016 and 120 times in 2015. Force was used while responding to a person in crisis 62 times in 2016 and 60 times in 2015.
Front-line officers in uniform patrol are the most likely to use force, accounting for 169, or 85 per cent, of the 172 reported incidents last year. Officers with five or fewer years of service are the most likely to be involved in using force, at about 38 per cent of the incidents last year. Police explain this is largely because about 21 per cent of officers in front-line patrol have less than five years of service.
A breakdown of month, day and time of day showed that use of force is most likely in May, on a Sunday and between the hours of 9 and 10 p.m. There were 27 incidents last year where someone was injured, including four police officers. In most cases, injuries are minor. In 49 cases, a person in crisis was taken to hospital for a mandatory mental health assessment.