The crisis related to opioid overdose deaths is among the big topics of discussion as Ontario police chiefs meet in Hamilton.
The meeting of the board of directors of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police comes as police services grapple with a number of related questions.
That includes whether to equip front-line officers with naloxone after the province offered to pay for the life-saving kits for police and firefighters across Ontario.
OACP President Bryan Larkin is the police chief in Waterloo Region where there have been 65 overdose deaths this year.
Larkin notes that officers in that region already carry naloxone in response to what he describes as “much greater risk” than other communities on a per capita basis.
Hamilton Police Chief Eric Girt has not, so far, agreed to equip his front-line officers with naloxone.
Girt notes that the service is studying the issue, but his preference has been to allow paramedics to carry the anti-overdose kits noting that “they have the training to administer properly.”
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Chief Larkin stresses that naloxone and safe injection sites are “tools in the toolbox”, adding that “we’re not going to arrest our way out” of this issue.
He adds that “we become advocates for our partners in public health and social services.”
The planned legalization of recreational marijuana on July 1, 2018 and proposed amendments to Bill 175 are among the other topics for the chiefs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Bill 175, which has been called the greatest overhaul of policing in Ontario in a generation, would, among other things, allow for the suspension of officers without pay under certain circumstances.
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