Meth, social issues top of mind as Edmonton police chief marks 90 days

Article content

The city’s top cop is seeing a correlation between increased meth use in the city and police officers’ use of force.

Edmonton’s police Chief Dale McFee sat down with media Monday to discuss his first 90 days with the service and where he plans to take the organization going forward. On top of mind is the number of social issue-related calls that take up nearly 93 per cent of the service’s time.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser.

Meth, social issues top of mind as Edmonton police chief marks 90 days Back to video

Those calls can include mental health concerns, homelessness and often deal with individuals under the influence of drugs. Meth, in particular, is on an upswing in the city because it’s cheap and addictive, says McFee.

Unlike fentanyl, where safe consumption sites have been set up, McFee says there is currently no strategy in dealing with meth.

“If you take meth, a lot of people stay awake for days and are not in the right frame of mind,” said McFee. 

“It’s a little harder to treat, it’s something we have to do our homework on in what we’re going to do.” 

Article content continued

A report published in 2006 by a joint task force created by then-premier Ralph Klein focused on addressing the problem of meth across the province. It recommended, among other actions, “increased availability of evidence-based harm reduction programs for meth, such as peer support and outreach programs.”

Those recommendations, however, did not gain much momentum.

Officers, meanwhile, seem to be answering more calls where meth is involved and it’s a topic that often comes up in morning meetings.

“You’re seeing it in car chases, you’re seeing it in some of the firearms offences that people are staying awake for days and creating havoc and chaos in our community,” said McFee. 

“Similar to fentanyl, we have to find a better partnership strategy in dealing with that.”

While the number of use-of-force occurrences in 2018 was down 6.3 per cent from 2017, the use of force in calls can “disproportionately” be in relation to the behaviours of individuals under the influence of drugs.

“You have to protect yourself, protect your members and ultimately you have to come home safe,” McFee said. “Again, the question becomes why are we seeing an increase in the use of force . . . I’m not getting into any specific cases but we’re seeing an increase in meth which is a really hard to predict drug which people are doing things they probably wouldn’t do, right?”

The service could not immediately provide use-of-force statistics for 2019.

The chief said the toll dealing with these social issue-related calls takes a “huge” toll on officers and other frontline emergency members.

Article content continued

“The reason it takes such a hard toll is you’re going to the same people over and over and over. In all due respect, it’s kind of like Groundhog Day because we’re not actually trying something different and that’s what we need to do,” said McFee. 

He added most of the officers get calls to the same people so often, they know them by their first names.

“They stop in, they check them, they check on their well-being and those are things that I want to continue. We need to check on their well-being,” said McFee.

“But it’s frustrating for (officers) when they don’t think they can provide any solutions and that’s what drives the burnout.”

ajunker@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/JunkerAnna