Policing the Mentally Ill in Canada

"All intervention options are less effective on subjects perceived to be emotionally disturbed."
Report

"Normally things that would put our brakes on ... sort of get blocked by this process."
"There is no perfect right answer. The best thing you can do with these people is limiting their physical confrontation."
Gary Vilke, Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine, University of San Diego

"Some officers seem to be acutely aware of how their appearance as a police officer may be interpreted as a threat by these subjects in crisis."
Simon Baldwin, PhD student, Carleton University

RCMP employee and doctoral student Simon Baldwin analyzed some 450 cases of interactions between RCMP officers and people perceived to be in a mentally disturbed state, between 2012 and 2013, where symptoms of Excited Delirium Syndrome were cited. Individuals facing an extremely acute mental-health episode, where police are called to deal with a situation involving people in a psychotic breakdown.

The RCMP Subject Behaviour/Officer Response database of the RCMP, tracking each episode where an officer deploys force in the line of duty, informed Mr. Baldwin in his study of the situation. This research represents the sole academic paper reliant on its data, producing a rare statistical insight into practices the RCMP relies upon. Data that has always been kept confidential, not released for research purposes or to the news media and the general public.

When an individual was recognized with signs of Excited Delirium Syndrome, Mr. Baldwin discovered, force was ineffective roughly 40 percent of the time, in comparison with 13 percent of episodes when signs were absent. The signs of Excited Delirium Syndrome, difficult to diagnose overlap with other types of mental-health episodes.

Over one-in-five interactions between RCMP officers and individuals believed to be in a state of emotional disturbance ended in serious injury or death of the person, according to a 2014 study. This represents twice the rate of interactions where officers deployed force on someone "not perceived to be emotionally disturbed" and where officers were similarly twice as likely to be injured.

Gordon Walker Bowe died after arrest in 2008. (Facebook)

Available research indicates that the syndrome can be triggered by a number of factors; recreational drug use, or abruptly ceasing medications for a psychiatric condition, among them. Hallucinations, paranoid delusions, aggressive behaviour, rapid breathing, high pain tolerance and a lack of physical exhaustion are all typical of those experiencing Excited Delirium Syndrome.

As an expert in the field, Professor Vilke relies on the process of sedating these individuals where treatment can be crucial to their well-being in the light of a prolonged episode potentially leading to cardiac arrest. All of which fit into the study conducted by Mr. Baldwin, demonstrating clearly the model used by the RCMP is ineffective when interacting with an individual in such a state.

Once force is employed, even while officers are trained to de-escalate a situation before the use of force, officers find themselves unable to explore alternative solutions. "I was truly afraid that with all the intervention models I had, nothing was working. I did not know what else to do", read one officer's occurrence report.

Emroy Cardinal, 38, died in a "struggle" with police in, Alta. with his son./ jpg

Police may be required to employ force, tasers in particular, in an effort to restrain such individuals. The model currently employed by the federal police force instructs officers in the use of more aggressive and potentially deadly force only in such situations where an individual violently resists or poses a threat to themselves, others, or an officer. Officers are instructed to observe the "emotional state" of an individual and make note of "emotional venting" as a symptom of potential threat, but makes no mention of Excited Delirium Syndrome or mental health.

The model, last updated in 2009, fundamentally deploys the opposite reaction of what such circumstances require. When emergency 911 calls are sent by family members to secure the safety of a loved one, they anticipate a medical-centric approach to the problem, a problem that can quickly get out of hand when a psychologically excited individual is faced with physical aggression in an effort to defuse a situation that only a trained mental health worker can handle.

Roughly 2.7 million calls annually come in to the RCMP in many areas of Canada where the majority of calls to police are not criminal events, according to Statistics Canada. Police response may be required in some calls, yet a desperate need exists for dedicated psychiatric response teams, trained to handle difficult situations of people in crisis.

Police were called to this southeast home to investigate a report of a man acting erratically. (CBC)