Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

with, and apprehension of, “emotionally disturbed persons,” and their subsequent
admission to psychiatric facilities. 67
2. Emergency room transfer of care procedures
79. Lengthy transfer of care procedures in emergency rooms at many of Toronto’s
psychiatric facilities are both an obstacle to efficient care for people in crisis, and
symptomatic of the uncoordinated relationship between the police and the mental
health system. In addition to wasting scarce police resources, these extended delays
aggravate the stigma associated with mental health issues by forcing individuals to wait
under police supervision, often in handcuffs. Below, I discuss these issues and highlight
some possible ways in which they may be addressed.
80. Section 33 of the Mental Health Act stipulates that a police officer or other
person who takes a person apprehended under the Mental Health Act to a psychiatric
facility must remain at the facility and retain custody of the person until the facility
accepts custody. 68 As discussed above, and in Chapter 11 (MCIT and Other Models of
Crisis Intervention), though emergency room practices vary, officers and MCIT units
often have to wait hours before the hospital will take custody of the individual who they
brought in. In certain divisions, the average emergency department wait time is in
excess of two hours. 69 The Review was told that wait times can stretch up to eight hours.
The Human Services Justice Coordinating Committee Ontario has also reported two to
eight hour waits for police officers in emergency departments. 70 Regrettably, these long
wait times can create a disincentive for police to bring people in crisis into the mental
health system for treatment.
81. Emergency department coordination between TPS and many of the 16 individual
psychiatric facilities in Toronto is ineffective. Every minute that an officer or MCIT unit
spends waiting in a hospital emergency department is time that the officer or MCIT unit
cannot spend helping someone else. These visits also become unnecessarily arduous and
anxious experiences that exacerbate the condition of the person in crisis. 71 One officer
has stated, “Persons suffering from mental health conditions are not happy to be in
police custody and often do not understand why they are there. The stigma of being
seated in an ER [emergency room or department] under police guard, often in
restraints, adds to the stress of the situation.” 72 Similarly, an emergency department
staff person has stated, “There is perceived stigma created by having police officers wait
67
TPS, “Procedure 06-04”, supra note 24.
68
MHA, supra note 2, s. 33.
69
City of Toronto, MCIT Coordination, supra note 39 at 11.
70
Human Services and Justice Coordinating Committees are multidisciplinary committees that operate at the provincial, regional
and local level to address issues for people with a serious mental illness, developmental disability, acquired brain injury, drug and
alcohol addiction, or fetal alcohol syndrome, who come into contact with the criminal justice system. HSJCCs are discussed in
greater detail below. See HSJCC, “Effective Protocols”, supra note 4 at 5.
71
Id. at 7.
72
Ibid.
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