Calls to ‘defund’ police departments have been gaining traction across the U-S and Canada arising out of protests against police brutality and racism.
Brandon Police Chief Wayne Balcaen says defudning police does not mean eliminating the number of rank and file officers, he’d rather use the term ‘up-funding’ instead to properly support health and social services agencies.
“Those (are) areas where a lot of the workload has been passed onto police, and now maybe rightly so, (is) better performed by other professions,” says Balcaen adding, “it allows us to go back to the core functions of policing – detecting crime and doing crime initiative work – but not dealing with the areas of social services.”
Balcaen notes that the Brandon Police Service has made moves recently to take pressure off police officers, by involving more local health and social agencies. “We have community mobilization which brings a number of health service providers together, twice weekly, to look at cases that involve acutely elevated risk, and we assess those and bring the services to the individuals before they end up in crisis.”
He says the “Health-IM” program is an example. It helps officers deal with a mental health call to find a person the right resources to keep them out of the criminal system. Balcaen says BPS also works closely with groups like Citizens on Patrol, Bear Clan, Samaritan House and Safe and Warm.
