Police responses to mental health crises rise
Those on all sides of issue call for change after study shows calls doubled since 2009
Vancouver police responded to nearly 5,000 calls for mental health-related problems in 2019, more than double the number 10 years ago, and leading to concerns that mental illness is being criminalized.
In a report to the police board this year, the VPD said apprehensions under the Mental Health Act increased 27.3 per cent from 2010 to 2019, though the rate of increase has slowed in recent years.
“Police are taking on more responsibility for the what they call the social calls for service, in meeting with people with mental illness and homelessness,” said Richard Bent, an adjunct professor at SFU who is a former RCMP officer. They’re the 24-hour service who’ll go when no one else will, he said.
Vancouver police Chief Adam Palmer said there is room for health authorities to take a leadership role in less serious cases. “There’s no reason to call a cop when you could have somebody come that is a mental health professional,” he said.
Palmer said Vancouver police have been calling for more public funding for mental health, addictions and homelessness for years.
Meenakshi Mannoe, the criminalization and police accountability lead at Pivot Legal Society, is more critical of police responses to mental health calls.
“The VPD have long said (they) are forced to respond to issues of mental health because every other system has been underfunded,” she said. “But their response has been the criminalization of poverty and mental health issues.”
“Did they need to attend the CRAB Park tent city and arrest 46 people?” she asked. “It’s the displacement of people who have nowhere to go.”
Mannoe suggested that redirecting money from policing toward housing would be more effective. “To me, that’s a very basic root cause solution,” she said.
Pete Fry, a Vancouver city councillor, said the VPD acknowledges it doesn’t want to be in the role of policing mental health.
“They think that there’s better use of their time and there’s better outcomes, and they acknowledge fully that the presence of police can often escalate a situation.”
“These are actually the roles of the province, that we (the city) are currently paying for through police,” he said. “Mental health and addictions, housing and homelessness, those are all provincial responsibilities.”
Fry introduced a motion to city council on Wednesday that would give top priority to alternatives to police interventions as a first response to mental health calls. He cited efforts in Toronto that involved local business associations training business owners and their staff in de-escalation and said Vancouver needs to be more aggressive in exploring similar solutions. The motion was tabled until after the provincial government releases additional information on their recently announced review of B.C.’S Police Act.
According to Bent, a lack of will has hampered any real efforts at reform. “You need strong government leadership and you need
There’s no reason to call a cop when you can have somebody come that is a mental health professional.
cross-sector government leadership because you’re going to need help,” he said.
Shane Simpson, minister of social development and poverty reduction, highlighted the premier’s appointment of a legislative committee to re-examine the Police Act and the NDP’S work on affordable housing and services as evidence of a willingness to act.
Fry said he expects more from the province, however. “I expect to see the Ministry of Poverty Reduction step up to the plate,” he said. “We’re literally doing their work for them.”