A Halifax man who has battled mental illness and homelessness says there needs to be another option besides jail.
Collins Ellison, 28, has suffered from schizophrenia for most of his adult life. He has been in and out of prison since 2017.
Ellison, who is African from Nova Scotia, asked to speak to the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners during a virtual meeting after learning about Halifax Regional Police. request to increase its budget by $2 million to hire 25 more officers.
In 2020, Ellison was released from prison after being convicted of aggravated assault and breaking and entering. He said he was homeless, struggling with his mental health and desperate to find a safe place to stay. Later that year, he was again arrested and convicted of criminal harassment.
“My interactions with the police were completely negative,” he told the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners during a virtual meeting this month.
In an interview, he told CBC News that he wanted to use his example to show where he thinks there is a huge lack of certain services.
“I felt like I didn’t have to end up in jail for myself,” he said.
‘De-assignment’ police
A new report calls on the Halifax Regional Council to “de-task” the police, which would remove the police from responding to homeless, mental health and youth-related incidents and give the responsibility “to a more appropriate organization.” “.
Ask the regional council to expand services like the Navigator Street Outreach program to address the current housing crisis.
The number of chronically homeless people in HRM has more than doubled in recent years.
Nearly 360 people have been homeless for six months or more, according to the Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Association.
That’s more than 140 people in 2019.
civil equipment
Mental health crisis calls should be diverted from police services to civilian teams, a recommendation says.
The report states that the Mobile Mental Health Crisis Team, a partnership between the Halifax Regional Police and the Nova Scotia Health Authority, must also be “civilised”.
During the recent police board meeting, Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella said that mental health is one of the main contributors to the increasing complexity of crime.
A Halifax Regional Police spokesman said there would be no comment on the budget while the police board considers it.
Kinsella provided some details about the request at the police board meeting.
The new hires would include 12 patrol officers, eight traffic officers, a traffic sergeant, two detectives for the sexual assault team, two detectives for a new hate crimes unit, eight dispatchers and a victim services case coordinator. .
The budget proposal does not request any additional mental health resources.
Staffing levels are stagnant, says boss
Kinsella told the police board that one of the main reasons the service needs more bodies is because many officers are on long-term leave.
He said staffing levels have stagnated while HRM’s population has skyrocketed in recent years.
According to Statistics Canada data, Halifax has the second-highest number of officers per 100,000 residents among major Canadian cities.
There were 208 officers for every 100,000 Halifax residents in 2019.
Crime rates have been falling steadily over the last decade, according to Statistics Canada.
The crime severity index fell 37 percent between 2010 and 2020. The index measures different crimes in an area.
The more serious the crime, the higher the rate. Halifax’s crime severity index was 61.88 in 2020. The national index was 73.44.
drop in violent crime
Halifax’s violent crime severity rate fell 21% since 2010.
“There is no evidence that more police on the street will reduce the crime rate,” Stephen Schneider, a professor of criminology at Saint Mary’s University, said in an interview.
Schneider said one problem with the crime severity index is that it doesn’t show the root causes of crime. To prevent it, he said those root causes need to be addressed and the criminal justice system is not the best institution for the job.
“The criminal justice system is largely reactive,” Schneider said.
Police have a role to play in public safety, but they need to partner with other stakeholders, Schneider said.
He said the conversation about “defunding the police” is really about shifting resources to more effective agencies like community groups, schools and youth programs.
“For me and for a lot of criminologists, that’s really the way to go,” Schneider said.
The Board of Police Commissioners will host a special meeting on Monday afternoon to provide members of the public with an opportunity to comment on the Halifax Regional Police 2022/23 budget.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians, from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community, check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
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