The North Bay Police Service is reporting that they are responding to an average of 10 mental health-related calls per day
“We are talking about incidents that primarily do not include a criminal occurrence and usually involve some anti-social behaviour that is displayed in front of the public that has created a concern for a citizen or another entity within the community and we are responding and it is not a crime but requires a police presence to de-escalate the event,” stated Scott Tod, North Bay’s Deputy Police Chief.
Police say they are averaging around 10 of this calls per day along with an average of three to four domestic violence calls daily as well.
“The issue for us as the calls for service continue to increase and the demands increase we have less time to work on that proactive measure with our community partners to de-escalate those elevated situations so it really is a complex situation in all police environments and many social agency environments but what it really helps us do is taylor our resources to the specific problems that happen in our community; it may be a specific individual also so it is a large challenge for us,” said Tod.
Tod says resources such as the provincially renowned Community Hub and its partners have helped with the problem.
“The hospital is working closely with the police now in regards to the admission times it takes for the person to seek treatment so the hospital has been very good to be working with us on that and reducing the amount of time officers spend at the hospital, not doing anything else but waiting,” he said.
Tod says they are also helping officers understand how to cope with domestic and mental health situations through in-house education.
“If we can defuse those situations prior to the violence happening with a number of community interventions - not just police - then we can make community safety better for families and for children and for adults,” said Tod.