Expanding mental-health crisis-response program could send clinicians out on low-risk calls without officer: police chief

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Crisis workers could respond to some low-risk mental-health calls without Winnipeg police once a new program that pairs officers and clinicians expands, Chief Danny Smyth suggested Thursday.

Smyth appeared cool to the Police Accountability Coalition’s calls for Winnipeg to replicate a non-police-led initiative in Toronto that sent mental-health workers, instead of officers, to thousands of non-emergent, non-violent calls in its first year.

“This notion that this doesn’t occur in our community is misleading by the way it’s being reported, because there are lots of groups that are attempting to deal with people before they get into crisis,” he told reporters. “It’s not something that we’re lacking. Could we use more of it? Probably.”

PAC released a position paper Wednesday, saying civilian-led, community-based crisis response should replace Winnipeg’s long-standing “police-first” approach.

The coalition wants the municipal and provincial governments to create a 24-7 model similar to the Toronto Community Crisis Service, which is expanding after a pilot project between the city and community organizations.

PAC said the model would prevent negative outcomes, free up officers for other calls and reduce the number of people taken by police to hospital emergency rooms.

Smyth said work similar to that of TCCS is already being done in Winnipeg by Shared Health’s 24-7 mobile crisis unit and organizations such as the Downtown Community Safety Partnership.

PAC member Kate Kehler said the mobile crisis unit is “not very mobile,” because of the risk assessment criteria it uses before agreeing to respond. DCSP is not staffed with clinicians, she added.

Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis, a police and Shared Health program that pairs plainclothes officers and clinicians, is expanding after starting as a pilot in 2021.

“It potentially could include clinicians going into the field on their own,” said Smyth.

ARCC responds to some non-emergent, non-violent calls, but police must first attend and deem the situation to be safe.

ARCC recently expanded from five to seven days a week, with clinicians available 12 hours per day.

Manitoba’s NDP government has pledged to hire 100 more clinicians to work alongside law enforcement on non-violent calls.

“That’s one of the things that we feel will help turn the corner on these mental wellness calls,” said police board chair Coun. Markus Chambers.

Defending the current approach, Smyth said police officers “have the most training short of clinicians,” and situations can turn bad very quickly.

“People with the best of training and intentions can be harmed,” he said.

He cited a recent incident in which a man in a drug-induced crisis agreed to go to a hospital, after police encountered him on an Elmwood street.

As officers escorted an ambulance, the man “began to act erratically,” opened a door and jumped out of the moving vehicle on Main Street near Higgins Avenue, said Smyth.

The man suffered a broken arm. Because police were present, the Independent Investigation Unit, a civilian police watchdog, is investigating.

“It’s a good example, I think, of how quickly a person can go from a stable disposition into a crisis situation and become a danger to themselves,” said Smyth.

At least two recent fatal officer-involved shootings occurred during mental-health-related calls. University student Afolabi Opaso, 19, was in a mental-health crisis and had a knife when police were called to an apartment on New Year’s Eve, his family has said.

The family’s lawyer, Jean-René Dominique Kwilu, supports community-led crisis response.

“When it’s a crisis line, it should be 24-7,” said Kwilu. “I think it’s also beneficial for the police. Behind the scenes, they tell you they’re not equipped to be handling these calls.”

Chambers said he would support non-police-led response to some calls, but the safety of crisis workers must be ensured.

To help achieve that, governments need to be more proactive and invest more money in mental-health and addiction supports and prevention, he said.

“Not every call requires a gun and a badge,” the St. Norbert-Seine River councillor said. “For now, we’re seeing early promises of ARCC. We want to see it ramped up.”

PAC said an analysis of other community-led programs in North America shows there was no safety risk to civilian crisis teams in the vast majority of calls.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca