Brandon police chief favours sobering centre

BRANDON — Police chief Tyler Bates said he’s in favour of a 72-hour sobering centre in Westman’s largest city after a facility recently opened in Winnipeg under a new provincial law.

The province passed Bill 48, the Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act in November. It extends the amount of time a highly intoxicated person can be detained at a protective care or sobering centre to 72 hours from the former 24 hours.

Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith has said sobering centres could open in other cities such as Brandon and Thompson.

When contacted by the Brandon Sun this week, Smith did not confirm whether a 72-hour sobering centre is planned for Brandon. She said the province is focused on building the care model in Winnipeg.

“Our goal with the new protective care centre is to keep people safe during the most dangerous moments of intoxication and psychosis, to make sure they have real supports for them during their time here and to connect them to further services after they leave,” Smith said.

“It’s about preventing harm, protecting the public and giving people a pathway to care when they are at their most vulnerable.”

A sobering centre opened in Winnipeg on Dec. 2 at 190 Disraeli Fwy. in South Point Douglas.

The centre has 20 rooms — 16 of which are for inebriated people, while the remaining four rooms are reserved for those high on methamphetamine and are expected to open soon, Smith said.

The centre will be staffed by on-site paramedics and workers from Main Street Project.

At Manitoba detention centres, the detention time remains 24 hours. Bates said it’s a “disconcerting feeling” when people are still under the influence of dangerous drugs at the time they are released.

“The ideal when somebody is released from care is that they’re in that state of sobriety, they’re conscious, they’re aware, they’re able to understand the ability to access additional supports and, you know, receive the information with respect to referrals that might be available to them,” Bates said.

The chief said it’s concerning because there are not enough community supports available to help people who need more than 24 hours to get sober, especially if they are under the influence of meth, other long-lasting drugs or experiencing psychosis.

At this time, Bates said there’s been no discussion between the province and the Brandon Police Service about the possibility of opening a 72-hour sobering centre.

BPS has seen an “astronomical increase” in the number of people arrested under the former Intoxicated Persons Detention Act since this summer when paramedics at the police station started medically assessing detainees who didn’t require hospitalization, he said.

Before July 3, police officers took arrested individuals to the emergency room to be medically cleared before they could be detained in a cell, Bates said, adding he’s glad to have paramedics monitoring people at the detention centre.

“I think it makes a great contribution to the wellness of vulnerable citizens that we take into our care and … it enables the hospital to see a decreased volume in terms of people (who) come into emergency for assessment.”

Between July 3 and Nov. 18, police detained 529 people in Brandon under the former detention act or for breach of peace. During that same period last year, police detained 255 people, up from 167 in 2023, he said.

In 2021, the City of Brandon was given $2 million by the justice department to build a sobering centre in partnership with the John Howard Society of Brandon Inc., but the project is still in the design phase due to limited funds, said Shannon Saltarelli, the city’s community housing and wellness co-ordinator.

“We were challenged in how we can phase this project and build it in a really intentional way with the cost of construction right now, so we keep having to go back to the drawing board,” she said.

The John Howard Society will not operate the centre, said executive director Ross Robinson.

Saltarelli said she’s unsure whether the planned sobering centre will be designated as a 72-hour holding facility under Bill 48. It’s up to the provincial government, Brandon police and those who will staff the future centre to figure out how it will operate, she said.

Unlike a holding cell at a police station, she said, a sobering centre is a safe and appropriate place for an intoxicated person to slowly come down from their high, rest, or be in a separate room if they have the potential to harm themselves or another person.

— Brandon Sun