Police and mental health advocates say the death of a distraught man in a grocery store in Surrey illustrates how law enforcement officers are increasingly forced to respond to incidents involving the mentally ill, sometimes with deadly consequences.
Transit police responded Sunday to a call about a disturbance in a Safeway store in the north Surrey community of Whalley. The officers fired their guns at a man who later died of his injuries.
On Monday, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner said she wants to target the root causes of crime, including mental health and addiction.
“We can see even some of the recent examples (have) elements of mental health attached to them,” she told reporters at a news conference.
Hepner called for a new mental health facility in either a hospital or stand-alone building. She also said she has increased Car 67 teams, which respond to mental health incidents and are made up of an RCMP officer and a psychiatric nurse.
Last week, a man was taken down at a busy Vancouver shopping centre. The Vancouver Police Department said the man called 911 threatening to kill a police officer. He was arrested under the Mental Health Act.
“We’re dealing with a real crisis,” says VPD Cst. Brian Montague. “In 2014 up to Dec. 13, we apprehended 2,874 people under Section 28 of the Mental Health Act.”
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Gary Mauris of Desperate Families of B.C. says more needs to be done to help people with mental health issues.
“We’re seeing people becomes criminalized because there’s no place to send these people when they’re sick so the judges don’t have any choice,” says Mauris. “It all stems from sickness that has been untreated.”
Earlier this month, the BC Liberals unveiled a new rehabilitation and recovery program for those battling mental-health and substance-abuse issues in two upgraded buildings on the old Riverview Hospital grounds.
The VPD says 300 mental health beds are needed while advocates like Mauris say more police training is needed.
“Number 1–they need more housing, better funding for housing,” says Mauris. “Number 2–the RCMP and VPD need much more training, understanding the signs and symptoms, how to respond to people who may be in psychosis, who are going through an episode.”
-with files from Rumina Daya and Canadian Press
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