Zero deaths must be goal when dealing with people in crisis

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/12/2017 (3022 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We don’t yet know what led Winnipeg police officers to the door of a North End home this week, or what led to the man who lived in the upstairs suite being shot and critically injured.

There has been a suggestion from the neighbourhood that the 25-year-old man had a mental-health problem, which is why I emailed police a series of questions related to the three-year-old report done by retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci. The 400-plus page report is titled Police Encounters With People In Crisis.

Iacobucci wrote the report “deals with the loss of life in situations that cry out for attention and raise the fundamental question: How can lethal outcomes be avoided?”

When deputy police chief Gord Perrier called to answer my questions, I let him know up front what prompted them. It was the latest shooting. And the fact there have been five police-related shootings in the city this year, which has placed us second in Canada, only to Edmonton’s seven.

What I took from the conversation with Perrier was how advanced he believes the Winnipeg Police Service was in its dealings with people in crisis, even before the Iacobucci report.

“We did evaluate his report and most of the recommendations — the larger recommendations — we had already had in place in our service. So, it was confirmation.”

Although, apparently the report’s recommendations on training were useful.

“We were in the examination phase for dealing with people in crisis and being more comprehensive around our in-service training,” Perrier said.

He said the Iacobucci report “cemented” that direction.

Part of that training, I suggested to Perrier, centres on de-escalation; if you don’t have to confront the person for public safety reasons, you step back and call on specialized services to help. I asked if that summarized it correctly?

“Exactly, correctly?”

Perrier responded. “No.”

“I think in every use-of-force situation, it’s ‘Can you hold the ground that you’re in?’ ‘Do you have to’ — I don’t like to use those words, ‘retreat’ or ‘back up.’ And sometimes we do. We’ve had lots of officers do that.”

Hold your ground?

That’s not the way Iacobucci described the process: “A commitment to take all reasonable steps to attempt to de-escalate potentially violent encounters between police and people in crisis.”

I tried again with Perrier.

But if you don’t have to use lethal force, if there’s no one at risk but the officers and the person they’re confronting or being confronted by, then would you step back?

Perrier rephrased the question.

“What you’re really asking is, ‘Is it appropriate that someone backs off?’

“Yes,” he said. “But it depends on the whole situation.”

I gave him a specific hypothetical: a person in a dwelling house and there’s just the officers and the individual facing each other, with no one else in danger. Is that a time for de-escalating?

“Potentially,” Perrier said.

“But I can say this: we spend more time on use-of-force training.”

“Or,” he said, quickly amending his statement, “at least as much time on de-escalation as we do on use of force.”

Perrier went on to say the Winnipeg Police Service’s use-of-force policies have been examined during inquests probing cases involving people who died as a result of contact with police and there have been no “substantive recommendations for change in our use-of-force policy.”

So, if I heard him correctly, Winnipeg police are satisfied with their training and have nothing more to learn from the Iacobucci report?

“You know what, I don’t like the quote, ‘nothing left to learn,’” he said.

I meant nothing more from the report ­— not ever — but my question allowed Perrier to go back to the improved in-service training that has occurred since Iacobocci’s report, if not directly because of it.

“The prevalence of mental-health issues,” he said, “and of people in crisis; people suffering drug-induced psychosis, is a daily event. I’m very pleased with our training, but I will also say we’re always open to — and we always do, on a yearly basis — evaluate our training. Is there something more that needs to be done? Do we have to change our training?”

Finally, I asked if he agreed with Iacobucci that “zero deaths” should be the goal for police, particularly when they’re involved with people in crisis.

“Well, that would be nice in society; to have zero deaths for that,” Perrier said, “and impaired driving and many, many other things.”

It’s simply a goal, I reminded Perrier. A way of thinking.

“If you’re setting goals, you should be practical in what you can actually attain.”

Perrier went on to characterize the goal as “motherhood and apple pie.” Then, seemingly catching himself:

“They’re also very important,” he said of goals. “I agree with that.”

I’m not sure why the deputy chief came across so defensively, when I was only asking how police handle cases involving people who are in crisis. Especially when he could have simply spoken proudly about what the WPS achieved in 2016, even if it was only a happy coincidence.

Zero deaths.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca