Discretional Policing of an Impoverished Region

By: Oliver paronSubmitted to: Dr. Parnaby Date: November 13, 2014

Student ID: 0809125

Introduction

Police are part of a social institution designed to serve and maintain law and order and

ensure the safety of the Canadian public. Another important role for the police in society is to

work alongside and on behalf of the communities they work to serve. Police are provided the

burden of shouldering a crucial responsibility to exercise discretion when exercising their power

and authority towards public deviants. The Canadian legal framework towards policing poverty

is often strict, providing the downtown eastside (DTES) of Vancouver, BC to be an exceptional

case for the use of police discretion (Cunningham 2003, 230-35). This paper will examine the

novel circumstances of Vancouver’s DTES community and Vancouver Police Departments

(VPD) discretion towards poverty-ridden social issues, such as homelessness, mental illness and

drug addiction. The research question this paper will present is how useful and beneficial is the

discretional policing within the DTES of Vancouver? An area flourished by poverty.

The methods the Police of DTES choose to pursue on to their community is a very unique

and compassionate way of going about policing, the outcome of such a system leads to safety

and security within a very irregular deviant population and tackles the issue of crime towards

targeted groups in a completely innovative and effective fashion (Nation Film Board of Canada

1999). Other police departments in parts of Canada such as Montréal do not use the same

discretion as the VPD. The differing ways of policing these groups of people will be compared

and contrasted to genuinely emphasize the beneficial aspects of using the discretion the VPD do

to ensure the health and safety of their community.

Police Discretion

One of many duties of a police officer is to assess situations presented to them in society

and act according to the urgency and degree of crime that is being committed (Thomas 1982,

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145). This is also known as using discretional policing and is a very efficient way of avoiding

unnecessary charges and prosecutions for people who don’t deserve such punishment. The

officer involved uses his judgmental abilities to weigh the consequences and decide whether or

not to fully enforce the law on the individual.

Other circumstances where the police use discretion and where it is most relatable to the

VPD in DTES Vancouver is when police try to work with the offenders to try to help them

become better people and stop committing offences. The film “Through a Blue Lens”

demonstrates how the VPD use their discretional capabilities to effectively and positively help

the groups living in poverty in the DTES (Nation Film Board of Canada 1999). A police officer

makes a comment on his experience policing the area and explains how he came out of the

academy ‘hard’ and ready to fight crime but after warming up and familiarizing himself with the

community, he was to ‘police’ and ‘soften up’ (National Film Board of Canada 1999). This in

other words expresses how the VPD feel toward their community they are partnered with to help

secure safety and decrease crime. They do not charge homeless people, the mentally ill, or drug

addicts but rather they use discretion when confronting them and create relationships with them

that hold respect and together they work at bettering there choices and avoid the dangers of

repeated crime or even more serious crime that may occur.

Police discretion is unique in that there is no set in stone way of executing an objective

use of it universally. It depends on the police departments take on it and ultimately it is up to the

officer on duty to make the final call. The discretion the VPD use is far different from the

discretion that is used else where in Canada, for example Montréal, with aspects such as

Vancouver’s police initiatives and policies that make it distinctive and inimitable; other parts of

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Canada do not have the same successfully altered degree of policing put in place (Sylvestre

2010, 435; Charette et al 2006, 86).

Case Study: Vancouver’s DTES

The ten-block neighbourhood of the DTES is well-acclaimed in academic and grey

literature as Canada’s “poorest postal code,” home to nearly 18 000 residents within the

neighbourhoods of Chinatown, Gastown, Industrial Area, Oppenheimer, Strathcona, Thornton

Park and Victory Square (City of Vancouver 2012a, 2). Common socioeconomic characteristics

of the DTES are prevalent and widespread homelessness, drug use, marginalization from

mainstream society and perpetual poverty, often the main concern for police presence and

enforcement in the area (Linden et al 2012, 559-60).

The VPD are unique in enforcing the principles of the City’s Four Pillars drug strategy,

prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement (City of Vancouver 2012b). Unmatched

across the country, this police force employs discretion in their execution of law enforcement in

necessary and important ways for maintaining law and order and ensuring a sense of security and

hope for vulnerable groups in the DTES.

The VPD implemented an initiative known as the Citywide Enforcement Team (CET)

that is used in the DTES to crack down on crimes - by using the discretional method - that arouse

from the homeless, drug addicts and mentally ill people (Charette et al 2006, 85). An institution

was put in place called the supervised injection facilities (SIF) and named the program ‘Insite’

(Linden et al 2012, 561). This program allowed for safe drug use and to avoid contracting

diseases and dangerous and risky situations.

Homelessness, a targeted group that the incentives are aimed at accommodating, is seen

by the VPD as people who need help with places to sleep, eat and live reasonable decent lives

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and the VPD are their to provide useful counsel in the streets on the daily (Charette et al 2006,

88). Increased police presence encourages the homeless to push to find places off the streets and

out of alleyways to avoid contact and have more private places to use drugs (Charette et al 2006,

88).

The mentally ill present in the DTES are another very highly targeted group for

consideration. They account for 49% of all 911 emergency calls made from 2008-2011 in the

DTES according to the VPD reports (Linden et al 2012, 62). Most homelessness is due to the

person being mentally ill or unable to cope with reality and therefore the police use respectful

discretion towards these people in their attempt at rehabilitating them (Linden et al 2012, 65).

Drug addicts and drug use is also a very prominent problem in the DTES police have

taken most seriously and have drawn the most measures towards (Linden et al 2012, 61).

Examples reinforcing this iteration can be the four pillars drug strategy put into effect, and the

institutions that rose in its wake (CET and SIF) (Linden et al 2012, 61-62).

These three groups of public deviants that have conjured into the streets of DTES

Vancouver have called for the methods of policing in the area to adjust accordingly and apply the

proper use of policing in order to fight the issue in the most responsible and beneficially effective

way possible.

Discretion and Homelessness

The English Oxford Dictionary (OED) explains “homelessness” as having “no home or

permanent abode (1989). The problem of homelessness in the DTES is alarming and the

programs and policing that have been put in place to help the issue are very necessary. Close to

700 of the 18,000 people in DTES Vancouver are homeless, without a place to sleep, not even a

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room to them selves (Pedersen and Swanson 2009, 7-8). Another 3,700 live in privately owned

rooms with a bathroom down the hall and no kitchen (Pedersen and Swanson 2009, 7-8).

The film ‘Through a Blue Lens’ looks at issues involving homeless individuals and their

struggle trying to live in the DTES. Police officers use their discretion when confronting them

on the daily to see if they are okay and if they need help. A scene in the movie portrays an

officer’s visit to a familiar homeless person sleeping in her tent on the sidewalk. The interaction

goes as if the officer was checking up on a patient in a hospital, observing the state she was in

and proposing daily tasks or activities that could keep them out of trouble with the law (Nation

Film Board of Canada 1999).

This method of communicating with the homeless the VPD use and not entirely enforcing

the law upon them or neglecting them all together is an approach to discretional policing that is

very necessary for this community. The way these people are treated and handled by police

allow them to feel comfortable or at ease with their already miserable life and encourages them

to not commit crimes by reassuring them that they are on their side.

The term the officer used in the film, ‘gone soft’ refers to his feelings towards these

people living out on the street as he builds personal relationships with them, even if they are

“criminals” - from other deviance they get themselves into on the street (Nation Film Board of

Canada 1999). He explains how there is much more to policing then simply and mindlessly

enforcing the law onto vulnerable people; the issue at hand will not be solved. It is better to get

down to their level and work with the community for the community.

The homeless are people with little to no personal belongings or purpose in life and if

they were to be prosecuted and put in jail for there criminal behaviour, in the end they will wind

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up right back to where they started when they are released back into the public. Police assistance

in the DTES is an alternative that utilizes discretion when enforcing the law onto the homeless.

When comparing this policing method of the homeless with the city of Montréal it is

identified how the two techniques are very diverse from one another. Montréal has had many

complaints from its citizens about the homeless harassing, loitering, urinating and being

intoxicated in public (Sylvestre 2010, 435). They responded by using a harsh kind of discretion

that would steer them away from the cities streets (Sylvestre 2010, 435). This would involve

fines, arrests, removals, incarcerations and more (Sylvestre 2010, 435). Montréal police choose

to deal with their homeless without remorse or counsel like the VPD do. The discretion the VPD

use is a form of policing that works with the offender to rehabilitate them and prevent further

harm to themselves or to society.

Discretion and Mental Illness

To be mentally ill is to have “a condition which causes serious disorder in a person’s

behaviour or thinking” (Oxford English Dictionary 1989). The DTES of Vancouver is home to

thousands of people living with a mental disorder (Linden et al 2012, 565). Most of these people

fall into the low-income bracket within the city or are homeless, struggling to get through each

day (Linden et al 2012, 565). The mentally ill create problems out on the street that are

unpredictable and dangerous by behaving in ways influenced by delusions or hallucinations,

moreover they can be a threat to themselves and to others by being violent or suicidal (Pendersen

2007, 643).

Police use the utmost discretion when dealing with these kinds of people; they know they

are mentally unstable and they know to use respectful means of communicating with them

(Nation Film Board of Canada 1999). The people that the VPD encounter on the streets in DTES

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more or less have some degree of mental illness whether they are homeless or drug addicts and

the discretional policing used towards them allows for the police to work with them and try to

gear them in the right direction (Nation Film Board of Canada 1999).

The way police use their discretion towards the mentally ill is very similar to how the

homeless in the DTES are treated. Lots of daily interactions on the streets including asking how

they are doing, where they have been and what they have been up to since they last bumped into

one another (Nation Film Board of Canada 1999). Police counselling and advising concerning

these people look at the issue in a social context; attempting to help the person even if they are a

‘criminal’ by doing drugs or committing public indecencies, but do not deserve criminal

prosecution (Nation Film Board of Canada 1999).

Mentally ill people account for just under half (49%) of all emergency 911 calls in the

DTES (Linden et al 2012, 559-60). The VPD treat the situations with discretional decisions,

measuring out the harm that is being done to the community and to that person, and then making

good judgement with the amount of law that needs to be enforced or the use of socialization

which would lead them back to a more normal state (Nation Film Board of Canada 1999).

Policing mentally ill people is no easy task and involves a very high degree of toleration

for sometimes incoherent, inappropriately acting and suicidal people (Pendersen 2007, 643). For

the police to be involved, the mentally ill person would have to be committing some sort of

offence such as crimes associated with homelessness. These crimes can include public urination,

intoxication or overdose, but instead of arresting or fining the person, the VPD would take the

necessary steps in assuring that persons safety and security within the community (Nation Film

Board of Canada 1999).

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The way in which mentally ill people are policed is very similar in other parts of Canada

as it is in the DTES of Vancouver but it would seem that the reasoning for policing this way in

each city are not the same (Billette, Crocker and Charette 2011, 678). The VPD police mentally

ill people using the discretion they do because the citywide initiative is to combat the homeless

and drug addiction within the city (Nation Film Board of Canada 1999). This is done by

objectively taking these people to hospitals or taking part in interventions with them as the first

priority instead of making arrests and sending them through the legal system (Nation Film Board

of Canada 1999). Montréal, on the other hand, has research found about policing mentally ill

people that portrays quantitative data supporting that the main reasoning the police did not make

an arrest was due to long drawn out processes of paperwork, or the realization that bringing them

to a hospital might be a challenging task (Billette, Crocker and Charette 2011, 678). A very

popular route they take is to informally dispose of the issue by letting them ‘walk’ with

consideration that the issue being dealt with is usually not at high risk (Billette, Crocker and

Charette 2011, 678). This is legitimate in the city because the mentally ill receive special

treatment from the police that involves overseeing their criminal actions using proper discretion

because of their biological wiring (Billette, Charette and Crocker 2011, 678). Similarly to

Vancouver, although, if the use of violent behaviour, drugs or alcohol is involved or if there is an

offence reported by a citizen the possibility for arrest is increased (Billette, Charette and Crocker

2011, 678). This is a fact for reasons concerning over exaggerative public disturbance where

treating the issue as a social issue no longer is enough to get through to the offender.

Mental illness is very commonly found in the homeless population of the DTES of

Vancouver and it is associated, but not limited to, Vancouver’s biggest and most sought after

public issue; drug use and addiction.

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Discretion and Drug Use and Addiction

Drug use and addiction has been a problem in the DTES for many years and has not been

taken lightly by the VPD. The cities drug problem is the most heavily burdened by illicit drug

use in Canada (Charette et al 2006, 86). The DTES is home to one of the largest open drug

market in North America and to combat the issue many different social institutions and

initiatives have been put in place to work with the addicts (Charette et al 2006, 86). The city

became notorious for its drug problem in 1997 when 18% of injection drug users (IDU) observed

to have HIV (Charette et al 2006, 86).

Needle exchange programs (NEP) and SIF where users can go to get sterile syringes and

to inject drugs safely are a couple of the initiatives introduced as a result of the CET (Charette et

al 2006, 86). The city also adopted the “Four Pillar” drug strategy, which emphasizes the equal

importance of prevention, treatment, enforcement, and harm reduction (Charette et al 2006, 86).

All of these programs and initiatives were put in place to purpose the use of police discretion

when encountering these people.

Through a blue lens documents the policing of these drug addicts in the DTES and

depicts the discretional use of carefulness and caution as well as respect of the drug addicts as

they both try at working together to help lower the problem (Nation Film Board of Canada

1999). The VPD’s use of street level communication with the addicts allows for a much more

informal and comfortable interaction that can assure them they are not being arrested or fined,

but counselled (Nation Film Board of Canada 1999).

One regular daily walks through the streets and alley ways, drug addicts and found

everywhere, in nooks and cracks of buildings, either with drugs like heroin or cocaine and in

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worse situations they would find people overdosing (Anis et al 2003, 165; Nation Film Board of

Canada 1999). In the cases where they would find drugs on the person they would ask them to

dispose of it and move on, these kinds of interactions occur on numerous occasions everyday in

the DTES (Nation Film Board of Canada 1999). As for public over dosing, this reached an all

time high of once per day in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s in the DTES (Nation Film Board of

Canada 1999). Police would act calmly and accordingly when confronting these situations,

having called ambulances in advance and staying around the entire time until the user is back in

a normal state. Once the addict is sober, police talk with them and discuss what has happened

and what can be done about it, perhaps encouraging them to get involved in the many

rehabilitation centres surrounding the area.

The same discretion is used towards addicts who experience cocaine psychosis in the

middle of the streets, causing a scene that would seem as if they were having a seizure and acting

extremely paranoid, but was just the influence of injecting cocaine (Nation Film Board of

Canada 1999). The police see these problems not as criminal offences but as sick people in need

of help, and that is what they are there to do.

Drug addiction is not unique only in the DTES of Vancouver but it is of the highest

proportion compared with Toronto and Montréal with Toronto averaging 10,000-15,000

injection drug users and Vancouver and Montréal at about the same with 12,000 each (Macqueen

2003, 46). Toronto, with the greatest population density, has the greatest number of addicts,

except they do not choose to accommodate the issue as Vancouver has done in the DTES

because the issue is not as similar as that in the DTES, it would involve a different strategy

(Macqueen 2003, 46). Police in the busy streets of Toronto cannot afford to apply the same

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discretion the DTES receives from the VPD, too much time is required, it is much more efficient

to enforce the law on to these individuals (Macqueen 2003, 46).

Montréal, as it is very similarly populated with drug addicts as Vancouver is in the

DTES, is attempting to remedy Vancouver’s actions made regarding assisting drug addictions

and health and safety precautions of the users (Macqueen 2003, 46). Montréal is much more

attributable in relaying Vancouver’s initiatives for reasons such as they have comparable drug

user populations and analogous city functions that operate similarly to Vancouver’s (Macqueen

2003, 46).

Vancouver has been the initiator of such incredible discretional policing that has both

helped the city start to get back on its feet and influenced other cities around Canada to do the

same. Drug addiction is not something to be taken lightly by the community it is going on in and

the methods the VPD have in place are doing exactly what the community wants them to do

which is to secure safety in a healthy communal environment.

Conclusion

The DTES was and still is home to many homeless, mentally ill, and drug addicts that

conjugate together to live a life of struggles and disappointment. The issue is being well handled

by the VPD by working with the many initiative put in place such as the Citywide Enforcement

Team, The Four Pillar drug strategy, Supervised Injection Facilities, and Needle Exchange

Programs only to name a few.

Policing the impoverished state the DTES is no easy task for the VPD, but they have

learned through many years of being out in the streets how to best handle the circumstances.

They have learned that simply enforcing the law onto these people like the police academy has

taught them to do is not the answer in these situations. The more successful solution in the DTES

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is getting down to their level and communicating with them respectfully and building

constructive relationships that will encourage rehabilitation and help those people get better.

Other parts of Canada cannot seem to handle their issues with policing homelessness, the

mentally ill, and drug addicts quite as well as the DTES has been for over the past fifteen years.

This is because Vancouver’s DTES is significantly more populated by these people considering

the overall population of the area but it shouldn’t mean that other parts of Canada cant have the

same success this part of Vancouver receives from its policing.

The VPD has done wonders for its DTES at times where it was frightening to live with

averages of at least one over dose a day and on going public indecencies that made the beautiful

city of Vancouver occupy the slummiest part of Canada. The strategies implemented and

discretional policing are continuing to produce success stories from the area as the problem with

poverty has decreased from its highest state (Nation Film Board of Canada 1999).

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