FRANK IACOBUCCI: I wish to emphasize that the premise is the target should be zero deaths
when police interact with a member of the
public.
I have sought, as best I can, to understand
what is likely to be the police officer, what
it is like to be the police officer, or secondly,
the person in crisis in the highly charged
moment of a potentially violent encounter,
or thirdly, what is it like to be one of those
directly effected by the death resulting in
an encounter.
What analyzing how to prevent deaths in such encounters, one must focus on how to prevent
either the crisis itself or the encounter
with the police from occurring in the first
place, which involves improving the mental
health system among other things. One must
also look at methods and means of containing of subduing the person without lethal force,
which involves looking at tactics and equipment.
And that connection the importance of de-escalation
cannot be over-emphasized.
It is clear that police are part of the mental
health system, they have become the frontline mental health workers for many of the most
dangerous encounters.
Preventing deaths means preventing the crises
in the first place as well as helping them
to deal with theses crises better.
One of the key themes of the report is the
need for interdisciplinary cooperation, learning
and teaching involving not only police and
mental health professionals but also mental
health consumer survivors.
There will not be great improvements with
encounters police encounters with people in crisis without the participation of agencies
and institutions of municipal, provincial
and federal governments, because simply put,
they are part of the problem and need to be involved in the solution.
The basic and glaring fact is that the TPS
alone cannot provide a complete answer to
lethal outcomes involving people in crisis.
For those killed, and for their families,
nothing can take away their loss. For people in crisis who've had negative experiences
with police, self-evaluation by the police
and the larger mental health field is meaningful
if there is real change.
Recognizing the TPS for taking this initiative
is important but the real work remains to
be done and the true test of the Toronto Police
Service and those organizations with which
the Toronto Police Service interacts will
be what changes they make and the approach they take to the task.
What they do in this area is fundamentally
important to reinforcing public trust and
confidence in the Toronto Police Service.
