Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

scene from its central location. The Review has been told that the ETF aims to attend all
incidents involving a person in crisis where the person is barricaded; however, the ETF
assesses whether they have the capacity to attend that call based on its own availability.
All calls involving a barricaded person receive a high priority.
70. The mandate of this Review includes examining policies, procedures and
practices relating to the ETF. I discussed the role of the ETF with several of the
individuals with whom the Review team met, and reviewed data and documentation
regarding the ETF. Overall, in its dealings with people in crisis, and more broadly, the
ETF is widely viewed as highly trained and effective, and indeed as a model of successful
de-escalation, containment and non-violent resolution of incidents. There were no
stakeholder submissions that recommended improvements to the ETF. None of the five
shootings of people in crisis in the 2002-2012 period that are referenced in Chapter 3
(Context) involved the ETF, and the Review was advised that, in its history, the ETF has
fatally shot two people in crisis, both of whom had taken hostages. On the whole, my
impression from all of the information received is that the primary significance of the
ETF in connection with the subject matter of this Review is that this skilled unit can be
looked to for guidance in teaching other members of the Service how best to handle
encounters with people in crisis.
(f) Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams
71. As set out above and discussed in greater detail in Chapter 11 (MCIT and Other
Models of Crisis Intervention), Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams are officer and nurse
pairings that provide a second response to people in crisis after the first responding
officers have ensured that the incident is safe enough to involve a civilian nurse. MCIT
units also do follow-up calls with individuals, make apprehensions under the Mental
Health Act, and transport people to mental health facilities.
72. Unlike the ETF, which must be notified by Communications Services of all calls
involving a person in crisis, it is not mandatory to notify the MCIT from the outset of
such a call. Under Procedure 06-04, it is only mandatory for first responding officers to
notify the MCIT once they have already arrived at the call. All procedural statements
regarding notification of, and consultation with, the MCIT are stated with the caveat “if
available,” presumably in recognition of the fact that there are insufficient MCIT
services to meet the needs of Toronto. 62 As a practical matter, I have heard that when it
is determined that an incident is unlikely to be dangerous, the MCIT may act as a first
response, either alone or as a co-first response with a Primary Response Unit.
73. In recent years the MCIT has handled roughly 11 percent of calls coded by the
TPS as involving an “emotionally disturbed person.” This number can be expected to
increase in the coming years, as one additional full-time MCIT unit and three additional
part-time units are being added to the existing five units to provide some degree of
MCIT coverage across all of Toronto. Several stakeholders expressed the view that these
additions would not address the totality of demand for the unique services that the
62
TPS, “Procedure 06-04”, supra note 24.
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