Unfortunately our first responders are constantly inundated with these situations, and the combined effects of the quantity of calls + an inability to act with force under current policy has made it so that the police often aren't able to help in the ways the community needs them to.
IMO, people and businesses are both providing substantial funding to the EPS, but the underlying policies mandate inaction. Someone needs to make the choice to start treating crime and addiction with supports and serious, punitive enforcement. Neither option is effective without the other.
One of the (many) major problems is our Police/City/Province' love of funding small pilot projects but then refusing to commit real resources. The result of this is there are actually several different teams that would be appropriate to call for this situation, but all are tiny projects that were piloted, found to be successful interventions, but then never brought to scale. That way they can pretend to being making a difference without having to actually commit real dollars.
2-1-1 Rescue Van: Unsubstantiated but I have heard they are down to 2 active vans after a peak of 5 during the pandemic. Massively overwhelmed and under resourced. Does not have the power to intervene if someone does not consent to their support. Also, pay is atrocious so the team is constantly turning over.
PACT (Police And Crisis response Team): Partnership between a properly descalation trained police officer and an AHS mental health professional. This team is amazing in these kinds of situations. Been an active program since 2004 but never scaled up. There is one team for the whole city (if no one is sick) and if you call they usually send a roving cop instead who tends to make things worse.
HELP (Human-centred Engagement and Liaison Partnership Unit): EPS officer partnered with a non-profit worker from one of the agencies. Successful, but again only a couple of units and there is no public referral. Can only be called by the partners or EPS directly.
And none of this addresses the problem that after intervention there are very few places for these teams to direct people. We really could use that mental health hospital that the NDP planned to build that was cancelled in 2019. The scale of the problem has has grown 5-fold since then and is only getting worse. No matter what your preferred solution: Prisons, Housing, Treatment, etc the solutions will only be found with concerted effort and funding that begins with a B.
And just in case anyone things I'm not as sick of it as anyone else. Our condo building has blown through most of its reserve to beef up security, and on Wednesday my son woke me up at 5 in the morning excited to watch the flashing lights out our front window, so I got to sit with him and watch as the paramedics and police hauled away a body from under a bush across the street. Almost certainly an OD and I am thankful he is too young to understand, but I have no idea how I'm going to explain this to him as he gets older. I'm just as sick of this and honestly care less about how its responded to than I used to.
