Day shelter feeling pressure with RCMP policy change
Facility director warns crisis brewing after police decide not to jail people for simply being drunk
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Friday, January 22, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife's downtown day shelter is warning a new RCMP policy that stresses putting intoxicated people in shelters rather than jail is developing into a potential crisis.
Near the end of the summer, RCMP changed how officers respond to intoxicated people who aren't committing a crime or considered a risk to public safety.
RCMP Insp. Matt Peggs, the Yellowknife detachment commander, speaks about police crime statistics to a city municipal services committee. RCMP have changed the way they handle calls about intoxicated people, reducing the number of people that end up held in custody. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo |
Instead of putting them in jail cells, police now take intoxicated people to shelters in most cases. It's led to a drop in the number of prisoners in police cells but has put at least one shelter in a difficult position.
Denise McKee, executive director of the Safe Harbour Day Centre on 49 Street, said it has left staff in a catch-22 position where they feel pressured not to evict clients who are overly intoxicated.
"If we release this person and tell them they can't come in, they're going to be out in the cold in 40 below, that's going to have some serious implications," she said Wednesday. "But left inside, it's going to - within a short period of time - escalate to where we do have a higher level of violence and physical aggression within the shelter."
Insp. Matt Peggs, the Yellowknife RCMP detachment commander, told Yellowknifer the change in policy was made to shift police resources toward other issues, such as drunk driving and drug investigations.
"We've freed up the time of the members and we now have the time to take on the proactive initiatives," Peggs said, pointing out officers are doing more foot patrols downtown.
Peggs, who began his posting in late August, said there was an analysis done of how many prisoners were being held and how many were facing criminal charges.
Police were repeatedly holding the same small number of individuals in custody who were intoxicated.
"For some of the individuals that we deal with, a shelter is a more appropriate place to stay," Peggs said.
When the decision was made, he said the shelters were advised.
However, McKee said prior consultation would've been better. The new policy is not the best solution for Safe Harbour, she said, which operates through the day and doesn't offer overnight lodging.
"Sometimes people introduce things thinking they're going to be the best solution. Maybe consultation prior to introducing new things may be a way of approaching it before we enter into crisis," McKee said, adding that the continuation of the policy could develop into a crisis.
She said the change has impacted the atmosphere in the shelter.
"The shift has gone from us doing a lot of moving forward on trying to secure things like employment and other services and referrals to really being on the floor trying to make sure people are safe - including staff," McKee said.
There are 84 shelter beds in Yellowknife, according to data complied by the city. That figure includes the family violence emergency shelter.
Centre for Northern Families, which lodges women, has in the past said it won't turn people away. Calls to the shelter were not returned by press time.
Dusty Sauder, the Salvation Army's executive director of the N.W.T. Resource Centre in Yellowknife, wrote in an e-mail that use of its overnight shelter for men has climbed in the final months of 2015. The average number of users was just under 36 in 2015, up from 28 the year before.
Sauder wrote that there's no way to directly correlate the increase to the shift made by police.
The shelter, open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., has rooms for 31 people but they also house people in the dining room. The maximum capacity is 49. Hope's Haven, an emergency shelter for both male and female youth, has eight beds.
"The increased occupancy has meant that we are having to be vigilant in following our policies and procedures," wrote Sauder. "Although we are a low barrier shelter we must still restrict service to clients who are violent or abusive to staff and other clients."
The Salvation Army loosened its rules regarding intoxicated clients last year.
"If an individual is intoxicated they are welcome to stay at the shelter like anyone else," Sauder wrote. "If they are quite intoxicated they are asked to go to bed for risk reasons."
