Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

65. Communication is central to every stage of this crisis intervention model, from
developing rapport with the patient and identifying the problem to creating and
implementing a plan of action. 58
66. As the Review heard with respect to the Metropolitan Police Service, when
professionals dealing with people in crisis have no option to use lethal force, they are
more likely to default to verbal de-escalation and develop multiple communications
techniques to resolve a crisis situation.
E. Difficulty in comparing statistics regarding use of force
67. As discussed in Chapter 3 (Context), between 2002 and 2012, TPS use of lethal
force involving members of the public ranged from one to five incidents per year. For
Ontario as a whole, the Special Investigations Unit reports a range of 1 to 10 lethal
incidents per year resulting from police use of firearms against members of the public. 59
68. It is difficult to compare the use of force of Canadian municipal police services
not only because of challenges in obtaining data from those sources, but also because
police services collect and report different information, and code their data differently.
Thus, the Review was not able to compare TPS data regarding police use of force in
encounters with people in crisis with the same information from other cities. Further,
the criteria for assessing mental illness continue to evolve, which may affect how various
police services record calls involving people in crisis at different times.
69. At the same time, some notable comparators stand out, without the need for
detailed statistical analysis. For example, the Review was informed that the
Metropolitan Police Service in London has been involved in shooting four people in
crisis in the last 10 years—in a city of 8 million people. This compares with five lethal
shootings of people in crisis in Toronto in the 2002-2012 period, with Toronto having
only a third of the population of London. Although the absence of a “gun culture” in
England is often cited as a relevant factor when considering use of lethal force by
London police more generally, it should be irrelevant when considering encounters with
people in crisis specifically. There is no reason to believe that London has fewer people
in crisis than Toronto, or that people in crisis in London are less dangerous than in
Toronto, yet police in London are involved in substantially fewer lethal shootings of
people in crisis than the TPS.
70. The Rand Corporation, a policy research institution, has issued a report
canvassing best practices in measuring police performance. 60 The Rand Report notes
the importance of comparing performance across police agencies to determine how a
service is performing relative to similar agencies. The Report recommends using data
from multiple agencies to create a standard comparator and “synthetic controls” against
58
See e.g. id. at 25-29.
59
Ontario Special Investigation Unit, “Special Investigations Unit Annual Report, 2011-2012: Shaping Civilian Oversight” (2012),
online: Ontario Special Investigation Unit at 17.
60
Robert C. Davis, “Selected International Best Practices in Police Performance Measurement” (2012), online: RAND Corporation
http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR1153.html [Davis, “Best Practices”].
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