Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

society must bear. One result is, I believe, a level of skepticism among police when
people outside the organization suggest that there is room for the police to improve.
2. The perspective of the person in crisis
19. The person in crisis has a very different perspective on an encounter with the
police. The person in crisis does not come from a position of power, and does not enter
the encounter with the imperative of achieving control and resolution. By definition, the
person in crisis is not immediately capable of even self-control, let alone control over the
situation.
20. Above all, the person in crisis needs help. Whether it is by reason of mental
illness, or a more transient mental or emotional crisis (possibly induced or exacerbated
by drugs or alcohol), the person is in anguish. The person’s crisis may manifest itself in
belligerent behaviour, making it more challenging to receive help. The person may also
be experiencing delusions that make it difficult or impossible to understand what is real.
The person’s need for help makes an encounter with the police in one sense desirable,
because the police have the mandate to serve and protect those in need.
21. Problems arise between a person in crisis and the police when one of two things
happens.
22. In some encounters, the problem arises because the person in crisis poses such
an imminent and serious danger that it is essential that the police either immediately
contain the person or immediately use force to subdue the person. When analyzing how
to prevent deaths in such encounters, one must focus on how to prevent either the crisis
itself or the encounter with 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 or subduing the person without lethal force (which
involves looking at tactics and equipment).
23. In other encounters, the person in crisis does not pose the same type of imminent
and serious danger, but problems arise because the police do not de-escalate the
situation successfully. A failure to de-escalate can arise from a number of causes,
including lack of understanding by police regarding the level of risk posed by the person
in crisis, or a lack of knowledge or ability on how to de-escalate effectively. While it is
clear that the TPS devotes considerable effort to educate its members on proper risk
assessment and to train them on effective de-escalation techniques, it is also clear that
the education and training are not 100% effective. There have been encounters between
the TPS and people in crisis in which there has been a failure to de-escalate.
24. In this second category of failed encounter, what the person in crisis needs is
empathy, patience, guidance, and help. I was informed by several people with lived
experience of mental illness that people in crisis are often afraid, whether because of
delusions or simply because the crisis itself is alarming. The arrival of police and the
perceived possibility of force being applied also cause fear in these crisis situations.
Some people in crisis carry weapons, not necessarily because they wish to be aggressive,
but because they feel a need to protect themselves from real or perceived threats. When
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