Calgary police chief Roger Chaffin believes the current approach to the opioid crisis doesn’t do enough to help addicts.
“I think it’s one of those issues that really points out just how incomplete our approaches are if all we can do is arrest our way through it,” Chaffin said in an interview with 770 CHQR’s Rob Breakenridge Wednesday afternoon.
“There’s a real big cry for a much more intense, collaborative solution than what we’re currently using,”
He said that drug possession charges in Calgary are down and police have a considerable amount discretion when dealing with individuals who are addicted to drugs.
“The challenge… for us really is how to exercise that discretion and where to connect these people to.”
He said the issue becomes complex because there’s only so many beds and treatment centres available in the city.
Chaffin said he’s open to talks of decriminalizing certain drugs but only after other possible solutions are explored.
“Talking about decriminalization before you’ve talked about the rest of the solutions — saying simply by legalizing the drug somehow that would make it safer — is fraught with problems and is illogical,” he said.
“I think at this point I’d say I’m open to the discussion when we’ve discussed the rest of it, when we’ve been able to say, what are we going to do as a community, what are our investments within the private sector, within the public sector, within orders of government?”
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“What are we going to do to confront this problem that is not going to go away by itself? It’s not going to fatigue itself away, it’s going to be a persistent issue for us and if we can answer those questions well, if we could have a really good community based solution, then you can talk about things like decriminalization.”
He added that there’s a struggle to bring forward new solutions because of a lack access to mental health and addiction care, as well as funding needed in the community.
Chaffin admitted that charging people who have an addiction with possession and putting them through the criminal justice system isn’t helpful.
“I think we know that what the addict needs is help and support. Incarcerating them or creating more toxic stress for them likely will exasperate their issues that are leading to addictions or whatever else they are struggling from.”
Chaffin said there are times when a criminal charge might be the best avenue of support for an addict, but it’s not the right tool by itself.
“There’s always going to be a place for the law but these people need support and help.”
The ultimate goal, according to Chaffin, is to save lives and protect public safety. He said most addicts are struggling with more than just an addiction and engage in crime as a result.
“The strong hypothesis would be if they get healthier, the crime trends would drop,” he said.
He said there are conversations ongoing the provincial government about restorative justice means; things that can be done outside of the justice system that might create solutions.
Chaffin supports the supervised consumption sites which are set up in the province but said the bigger picture needs to factor in treatment.
He said more can be done as a community if we work together on solutions for issues surrounding addictions and mental health.
“There’s been a call for many years that we need to find something we can do outside of our authorities. We’re getting traction slowly but this is a call for more.”
LISTEN: Calgary police chief joins Afternoons with Rob Breakenridge.
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