Toronto police temporarily suspending program for officers meant to assist on mental health calls

Amid increased public scrutiny for how law enforcement handles calls for people in the throes of a mental health crisis, Toronto police officials have temporarily suspended the specialized deployment of some officers who are trained to assist on these kinds of calls.

Now, experts are questioning why this program exists in the first place, arguing resources would be better served funnelled into community health organizations to respond to these situations, instead of police.

According to an internal memo obtained by CBC News, Toronto police temporarily suspended the deployment of what it calls "Divisional Crisis Support Officers" (DCSO) in September, citing "staffing pressures."

The intention of the program was to have these officers — who completed specialized training from a two-day course — assist with Mobile Crisis Intervention Team, which pairs an officer who completed a 10-day course with registered nurses to respond to mental health calls.

The intention was to have DSCO officers primarily assigned to that effort, and not available for other calls for service. But now, according to the letter, these officers are expected to be available for any emergency calls.

"While not being dedicated to this role, when available, it is expected that these officers continue to utilize their valuable skill set when attending calls and assisting members of the public," the memo reads, adding that the "intent is to return to the original program deployment model as soon as staffing allows."

Documents from the Sept. 27 meeting of the Toronto Police Services Board state that the DCSO program was introduced for frontline officers in 2021, with 149 officers having received the training and 131 more scheduled to receive it by the end of this year.

In an email to CBC News, police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said that as the force prioritizes staffing in primary response units (PRU) in the city, the work of the DCSO has been "reimagined."

"Specifically, instead of having only one dedicated police officer on each shift, we are training more PRU officers in order for them to be better prepared to respond to mental health calls for service," Gray said.

While these changes are being made, experts have questions about why this program was instituted in the first place. 

John Sewell, co-ordinator of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition and a former mayor of Toronto, told CBC News in an interview, that if anything, this issue suggests that police are responding to calls they shouldn't have to, which could instead be handled by mental health workers.

"Why are police responding to homelessness calls? Why are they responding to drug overdose calls? … They aren't needed for those kinds of things," he said.

"The point is, police are not trained in mental health."

A similar sentiment was echoed by Dr. Vicky Stergiopoulos, physician in chief at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She said this is an opportunity to "reimagine what an appropriate crisis response system would and should look like for our population.