Police Chief Bill Blair is vowing to move forward with “urgency and resolve” in implementing a sweeping report that calls for enhanced mental health training for officers and recommends equipping them with body-worn cameras and Tasers to discourage their use of lethal force.

The report was prepared by retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci in the wake of the deadly shooting of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim last July and makes a total of 84 recommendations, including the establishment of a “comprehensive police and mental health oversight body” and the inclusion of mental health expertise as a factor in the hiring of new officers and the promotion of others.

The report also recommends that the Toronto Police Service “consider conducting” a pilot project for expanding the issuance of Tasers to front-line officers in order to provide an alternative to lethal force.

The exact size and scope of that pilot project will be up to TPS leadership.

“This is not a report that will gather dust; this is a report that will gather momentum,” Blair promised reporters at a news conference at Toronto police headquarters Thursday morning. “I believe these recommendations provide us with a clear path forward. The status quo is not good enough.”

In preparing the report, Iacobucci reviewed more than 12,000 documents and spoke to four families who lost loved ones in lethal encounters with police, two of whom were local to Toronto.

Iacobucci also went on ride-alongs with members of the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team and spoke with a total of 20 officers, including three who were previously involved in deadly police-involved shootings.

Iacobucci’s recommendations touch on a number of different areas, including police equipment, use of force guidelines, police culture, crisis intervention models and training and support.

“The premise of the report is that the target should be zero deaths when police interact with members of the public,” Iacobucci said Thursday. “The importance of de-escalation cannot be overstated.”

In addition to recommending improvements to the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team, which sees trained mental health nurses work in concert with police officers, Iacobucci also recommended that Toronto police create a crisis intervention team where officers would be trained to provide a “specialized” response to people in crisis, 24 hours a day.

The idea is modeled after a similar program in Memphis.

“The people in crisis are our brothers, sisters and children,” Iacobucci said. “They are not apart from us; they are a part of us.”

Report could lead to changes across Ontario

The fatal shooting of Yatim as the 18-year-old grasped a knife inside an empty streetcar on Dundas Street West was partially captured on video and later uploaded to YouTube, leading to several weeks of escalating public protests that culminated with Blair ordering the review on Aug. 12 and then the Special Investigations Unit charging Const. James Forcillo with second-degree murder two weeks later.

Though the recommendations in the review are tailored towards the Toronto Police Service, Blair told reporters that police in other jurisdictions should take note and expressed a desire that the TPS could be “national leaders” on the file.

That thought was echoed by Marianne MacIsaac, who attended Thursday‘s press conference on behalf of her late husband Michael.

Michael MacIsaac was fatally shot by Durham police in Ajax in December after he advanced upon an officer with a table leg in hand. MacIsaac’s family has always maintained that he was having a “complex partial seizure” at the time of the incident.

“I came here for Michael and for everybody else that has been effected by senseless police shootings. We hope and pray that this is the start of something positive, and that it doesn’t just affect TPS but goes out to other police forces,” Marianne MacIsaac said. “Everyone can learn something from this. Durham, Peel Region, York Region, everywhere. This issue effects the province greatly.”

The report calls on Toronto police to issue an annual report on their progress in implementing the recommendations.

Some of the highlights include:

  • The TPS create a comprehensive police and mental health oversight body in the form of a standing interdisciplinary committee that includes membership from the TPS, the 16 designated psychiatric facilities, the three local health integration networks, emergency medical services, and community mental health organizations.
  • The TPS change mandatory application qualifications for new constables to require the completion of a mental health first aid course, in order to ensure familiarity and some skills with this core aspect of police work.
  • The TPS more proactively and comprehensively educate officers on available mental health resources.
  • The TPS develop a network of mental health champions within the force service by appointing at least one experienced supervisory officer per division with experience in successfully resolving mental health crisis situations.
  • The TPS expand the availability of Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams to provide at least one unit per operational division and address whether MCIT services should be available 24 hours a day and whether MCIT teams can act as first response in certain circumstances.

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