GNWT wants policy for RCMP cells
Coroner's inquest calls for plan on how to deal with dangerously intoxicated people in police custody
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The death of a man who had been picked up by police for public intoxication and subsequent coroner's inquest has prompted RCMP and the territorial government to consider a territory-wide policy on how to deal with people who are dangerously drunk.
Where it applies would be important here because of the level of public intoxication visible daily on city streets.
RCMP stopped responding to calls about intoxicated people in Yellowknife late last summer unless there was a threat to public safety.
A coroner's jury convened in Fort Smith in September to examine the death of Wilfred Emile, 66, recommended RCMP in the community develop a policy on how to deal with people who have been arrested and showing signs of a "dangerous" level of impairment.
The man became ill while in RCMP custody in Fort Smith last October and later died. The jury determined he died of natural causes linked to a pre-existing medical condition.
The jury recommended police, the health department and community should establish a protocol for dealing with dangerously intoxicated people within a year and it should be known to staff who deal with such people. However, the non-binding recommendations were limited to Fort Smith.
The Department of Health and Social Services, in a response to questions from Yellowknifer, states the policy should be territory-wide.
"Any new protocols would need to be developed for use across the Northwest Territories, not just for the Fort Smith region, and we also would need to ensure that any procedures agreed upon with the RCMP are clearly communicated to staff and relevant individuals," stated Damien Healy, the department's spokesperson, in an e-mail Monday.
It's not clear what the policy may involve or what threshold would be used to determine whether someone is dangerously intoxicated.
The recommendations reminded Lydia Bardak, executive director of the John Howard Society, of her time on city council around 2006 when she travelled with RCMP to Anchorage, Alaska to study its programs for street people.
She said the city of 300,000 people has a well-regarded program that included trained people who would pick up intoxicated people, relieving the burden from police and paramedics, and a sobering up centre connected to its remand centre.
Everyone's blood alcohol level was tested as they entered the sobering centre. If they were deemed to be over a blood alcohol content of 0.35, she said they were taken to hospital. That's a level well above the legal driving limit of 0.08. They were tested again before release to ensure their blood alcohol had come down to a safe level.
"I don't know what it would take to do the blood alcohol testing (here) or whether they'd do it for everybody or just those who are really non-responsive but it is one tool that is available to them," Bardak said last week.
Such a testing system, she acknowledged, would be time consuming and costly.
In 2006-07, she said the then-RCMP detachment commander told her in one year officers spent 75,000 hours of police time checking people in and out of cells, usually for intoxication.
Following the inquest, the Mounties have yet to make changes in how people showing signs of dangerous levels of intoxication are assessed when taken into custody, RCMP spokesperson Marie York-Condon stated in an e-mail last week.
"Our members and employees are trained to assess the general condition of any prisoner, and we will continue to follow current guidelines until new ones are brought forward," she wrote.
Police would work with the department and others on such a policy, she wrote, adding it's not yet known how far reaching the policy would be.
RCMP detachment commander Insp. Matt Peggs told Yellowknifer earlier this year that officers may still respond to a call about an intoxicated person if weather is an issue.
The goal of last year's change in policy on handling intoxicated persons was to shift police resources away from them - who often only need a place to sleep it off - toward criminal matters, Peggs said.
"For some of the individuals that we deal with, a shelter is a more appropriate place to stay," he said at the time.
E-mails obtained through an access to information request also show it was a way to reduce liability.
"A substantial amount of risk and liability is taken on by both the organization and the (RCMP) member with all of the prisoners that we lodge in cells," Peggs wrote in an e-mail to other officers. "If there are ways to minimize this risk and liability, I would like these to be considered. I do not expect that we will no longer lodge (any) Drunk in Public prisoners and I accept that this is often the only option."
The shift caused some problems for shelters in the city, according to interviews and e-mails. Denise McKee, executive director of the NWT Disabilities Council, earlier this year said the change has led to a catch-22 where staff of the council-run Safe Harbour Day Shelter have let people stay inside who they would otherwise have asked to leave or report to police but don't because they don't want to force people out into the cold.
Those connected to addressing homelessness in the city have said more funding for things like increased day shelter hours and a greater range of programs such as a sobering centre are what's needed to start better dealing with the issues they face.
"A starting point might be to fund those shelters for 24/7 coverage because they're already taking a large number of intoxicated people overnight," Bardak said.
