Vanguard Magazine

P PoLIcIng www.vanguardcanada.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 17 Product showcase SENSOFUSION'S AIRFENCE Gap Wireless now distributes SENSOFUSION'S AIRFENCE addressing potential security risks posed by UAVs at military bases, government offices, airports, prisons, and energy facilities. AIRFENCE – designed with military testing in real world tactical scenarios – can automatically detect, locate, track, and take over UAV controls all on full auto. To learn more, go to: https://www.gapwirelessonline.com/sensofusion. reer is not what they thought it would be, but still there is nothing they would rather do. Moreover, you wouldn't hear about ir- reconcilable policing dichotomy; the per- son they arrested today was the same per- son they served and protected yesterday. accepting reality However, truly progressive police orga- nizations are recognizing the importance of the confidence of the public and do strive to find innovative ways to educate, communicate and explain processes to the public. But it's not only up to the policing organizations. Communities need to accept the reality of operational challenges of policing and abandon the role of armchair judge and jury while we demand super-human capa- bilities of officers - to act as psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and media- tors, to absorb the operational stress and resource constraints and the psychological impacts of the worst of calls. It's easy to critique and replay the video over and over, but the expectation of po- lice perfection is real and results in charges of hyper-masculine aggression and insuf- ficient police training - it's either lacking, out-dated, militarized or a deficient in other means. While training criticisms may have merit, there are functional aspects of human be- haviour that no amount of training can mitigate. Since training is scenario-based, controlled and with managed consequenc- es, it is impossible to recreate all environ- mental variables, physiological reactions and human behaviours. Woven into this are increasingly common behaviours, such as excited delirium, mental health disabili- ties, and narcotic-induced states, and they present a massive challenge in crisis man- agement. A recent incident in Toronto was com- pared to that of James Forcillo's handling of his interaction with Sammy Yatim's, by writer Andrew Mitrovica in a Toronto Star article, and states: "The cops kept their cool, working to- gether – as they've no doubt been trained – to disarm a kid who was wielding a knife not that much different from the one Ya- tim was flashing on the streetcar on that fateful morning. They resolved the tense situation without firing a shot despite the fact that, arguably, this kid posed more of a danger to the police and public than Ya- tim did. In the end, I can't help but think that if this group of police officers – who, like Forcillo, swore an oath to serve and protect the public, but, unlike Forcillo, re- sponded so differently, wisely, calmly and professionally to another disturbed young man in distress – had been there when Sammy Yatim needed help, he might be alive today, getting the help he so desper- ately needed." The expectation that these incidents are all alike, can be equally compared and can be assessed by an untrained bystander, are common but ignores the reality. It goes without saying, the most valued officer is the one who is able to achieve the desired result with the least risk or injury to all parties while maintaining the confidence of the public. But in a job where stress is insurmountable and there is little reciproc- ity for kindness, how realistic is this? Yes, they chose this job but it is important to consider that without that individual in that job, the job still remains - and it is a job that only a human can do. In the 2014 Ontario Human Rights Commission report on mental health dis- abilities and use of force and the 2016 Ontario Ombudsman's report, A Matter of Life and Death, on improved crisis in- tervention in policing both recommend a revised use of force model, an emphasis on de-escalation and improved training. Shift- ing from behaviour causality to a generic 'people in crisis' profile and de-escalation as core training makes sense. However, the theoretical obscures the practical, which is often the case in reports that are conduct- ed without the collaboration of subject matter experts and those who operational- ize these methods. In the Ombudsman's report, there were no recommendations to maintain program-specific capabilities and resourc- es in crisis management, such as where community-level police should deal with community-level calls for service and that specialized units remain as such, preserv- ing valuable knowledge, intelligence, and relationships. (I had requested clarification on the for- mulation of the recommendations and in- volvement of subject-matter experts from the Ombudsman's office and did receive a reply, albeit vague.)

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