OIPRD Releases Interim Report on Police Interactions with People in Crisis

TORONTO, March 31, 2017 /CNW/ - The Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) today released its interim systemic review report on police interactions with people in crisis and use of force.

"The interim report documents the recommendations that have been made by Ontario coroner's inquests into the deaths of people in crisis during interactions with police, and by Justice Iacobucci in his report Police Encounters with People in Crisis. The work that has already been done to study and understand police interactions with people in crisis, combined with this interim report, provides me with a critical tool and a foundation for the work my review will do in the weeks and months ahead."
– Gerry McNeilly, Independent Police Review Director

Since announcing the systemic review, the OIPRD has received and reviewed written submissions from stakeholders, held a series of roundtables with mental health experts and community organizations and reviewed dozens of reports on the relationship between the police and the mental health community.

In the upcoming weeks, the OIPRD will be auditing the police services involved in the deaths that generated the coroner's inquests examined in the report and will be evaluating the extent to which recommendations have been adopted and implemented by these police services. The audit will also analyze what is working well and what requires improvement. The OIPRD's systemic review will work in conjunction with an advisory panel of experts from the justice, mental health and academic fields to identify best practices and any additional recommendations to be made. Ultimately, the OIPRD will issue a final report intended to help ensure better outcomes in police interactions with people in crisis.

OIPRD FACTS

• Read the Terms of Reference for the systemic review of police use of force, de-escalation techniques and approaches for interactions with people in crisis.
• The Police Services Act gives the Independent Police Review Director the power to examine and review issues of a systemic nature that are the subject of, or that give rise to, public complaints. It also allows the Director to make recommendations regarding these issues to Ontario's Solicitor General, Attorney General, chiefs of police, police services boards or any other person or body.
• The OIPRD receives, manages and oversees all public complaints against the police in Ontario. This includes Ontario's municipal and regional police services and the Ontario Provincial Police.

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SOURCE Office of the Independent Police Review Director

For further information: Rosemary Parker, 416-314-4517, www.oiprd.on.ca