Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

A. Stakeholder input
7. By “stakeholder input” I mean advice and information provided by those with
direct involvement in the subject matter. The list of relevant stakeholders relating to the
topic of policing and mental health includes not only people with mental health issues,
service providers within the mental health system, and government ministries, but also
members of the Toronto Police Service who deal with the issues addressed in this Report
on a day-to-day basis.
8. Stakeholder input is essential for two reasons.
9. The first reason is to ensure effectiveness. Many of the issues addressed in this
Report are complex. For certain issues, the best implementation decisions will require a
detailed understanding of, and direct experience with, the specialized subject-matter.
To take the MCIT program as but one example, it is clear that any implementation
program designed to further improve the MCIT program will require direct input from
the TPS officers and mental health nurses who administer the program on a daily basis,
because of their in-depth understanding of the needs of the people they serve.
Implementation cannot occur in the abstract, but must be grounded in the reality of
people’s experience. I have therefore made recommendations about how best to
integrate that experience into the nuts and bolts of the implementation process.
10. The second equally important reason for stakeholder input is to ensure
legitimacy. No matter how well intentioned or enlightened, change will be resisted
unless those it affects believe in the legitimacy of the process that led to the change.
Involving stakeholders in the implementation process seeks to meet that need—to
ensure their voices are heard and taken into account.
11. As explained below, two key mechanisms for ensuring stakeholder input into the
implementation process are the creation of an advisory committee to the Chief of Police
on implementation, and the involvement of stakeholders in more detailed study,
examination and analysis of certain issues.
B. Transparency and accountability
12. The TPS needs to be, and to be seen to be, accountable to the citizens the
organization serves. It is a public institution. The public is entitled, within reasonable
limits, to know what the police are doing and why.
13. In the case of a Report such as this one, which contains a wide range of
recommendations and associated resource requirements, one of the key challenges of
implementation is to make decisions about priorities—about the sequence in which to
implement the recommendations, about the allocation of resources, and about whether
some recommendations should be implemented only at a later date or not at all. These
are difficult decisions about which reasonable people may disagree.
14. From the public’s perspective, it is important that there be accountability for the
decisions made. There should be explanation and good reasons for the decisions. The
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