Residents who come into contact with police while in the midst of a mental health crisis will no longer have to worry about that information being disclosed as part of a criminal background check.
As of Monday, the Toronto Police Service has ceased the practice of sharing mental health information as part of background checks conducted on potential employees or volunteers seeking to work with children or otherwise vulnerable people.
The policy change comes as police forces across the country re-evaluate whether they should be sharing information about attempted suicides or other mental health crisis’s.
“What we are talking about are non-criminal interactions. If somebody has a mental health crisis and it results in criminal charges that is still information that would be disclosed,” Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray told CP24 on Thursday afternoon. “We are really trying to balance the need for us to provide information that protects public safety with the privacy rights of someone who has had mental health issues in the past.”
According to Gray, the move to protect psychological information from being released is part of a wider commitment to implement a series of recommendations made by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police last June.
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