Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
Twenty-five new Community Engagement Response Team (CERT) officers are on the streets of Calgary in an ongoing effort to address social disorder in the city.
The Calgary Police Service (CPS) team launched in April focusing on transit lines and high system users. Data shows that officer presence is working, with transport-related social disturbance calls from the public down 42 per cent.
The hope is to take a proactive approach, working alongside social service agencies to connect people with the services and support available to those experiencing homelessness and addiction.
“Once we’re sure there’s no criminality involved (in the call), the clinicians can step in and talk about their addiction or mental health problem,” explained Superintendent Scott Boyd with the CPS.
Officers are allocated an area to enable them to build a relationship with the high system users in that area, but there are a higher number of patrols on tour.
“Those kinds of crimes and elements of social disorder can be traced on a hotspot map along the CTrain lines,” said Superintendent. Boyd.
Boyd says the Chinook area is an example of where the program is working. It is not a traditional spot for social disorder like the city core, but it has become a hotbed for crime.
Since April, the CPS has been able to deploy CERT officers and has seen a reduction in the number of calls from the public and an increase in the number of calls from officers for service, cutting back on average the 14 social disorder calls that Calgary police receive them every day.
“If we can reach them, get them into a social agency or Alberta Health Services, or another resource, that makes a big difference in our day-to-day calls for service to us and I’m sure to all of our partners,” said the Superintendent. Boyd.
CERT officers can issue bylaw tickets, and some are involved in dismantling camps to identify crimes such as drugs or weapons. But the aim is to work proactively, finding ways to change behavior and using tickets as a last resort.
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“We are looking to get people the resources they need at the moment they are ready to receive it to stop the behaviour, whether it is social disorder or a camp,” said the Superintendent. Boyd.
Alpha House in downtown Calgary provides outreach to people experiencing homelessness, mental health issues and addiction. Although they do not specifically partner with CERT, being able to collaborate with the police has improved their services.
“A big part of responding to public calls for concern is understanding what their real concern is,” explained Shaundra Bruvall with Alpha House. “Do you want us to do a welfare check? Is it for your safety that you fear? Things like this help us better understand if yes, this is a police call or if social services prefer to respond.”
Bruvall says there has been an increase in the complexity of mental health calls with more behavioral challenges. While that doesn’t necessarily change the response, it does change the complexity of managing public response and ensuring that everyone can be safe on the street.
“It’s really making sure people understand what’s going on in this situation so they don’t use fear-based responses to overwhelm them,” Bruvall said.
The increase in complexity is something the Calgary Foundation for the Homeless (CHF) has also noticed. As the weather turns colder, CHF is once again launching its Coordinated Community Extreme Weather Response to support Calgarians experiencing homelessness throughout the winter.
Last year the program established warming centers to provide an alternative to transit stations to heat and charge mobile phones.
There were 27,000 visits to the centres, 2,500 transports to the warming stations and 2,600 individuals were reached through the program, numbers that the Calgary Homeless Foundation hopes to build on this year.
“This is the most coordinated I’ve ever seen our city respond,” said Bo Masterson with the Calgary Homeless Foundation. “Not just to the cold weather but to the homelessness situation… We know shelters are not the best place people want to go, we know it’s not the most pleasant, and at the same time we know it is a solution of last resort to warming.”
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(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source link https://globalnews.ca/news/10763010/calgary-police-service-expanding-cert/
