Sault Ste. Marie Police Service has witnessed an increase in the number of times its officers have had to use force within the past year.
A 2020 statistical report presented to the Police Services Board Thursday shows a total of 121 use-of-force reports filed by members of the police service for 82 separate incidents requiring the use of force in 2020.
That’s up from 2019, when 104 use-of-force reports were filed for a total of 74 incidents.
But what’s concerning is the number of times firearms were pointed at subjects by officers over the course of the past year - 71 times in 2020, up 39.2 per cent from 2019, when officers pointed firearms at subjects 51 times.
Officers pointed firearms at a subject a total of 15 times in December of 2020 alone.
Sault Ste. Marie Police Service Chief Hugh Stevenson says that the uptick in the pointing of firearms by his officers is a direct response to the escalating violence in the city.
According to the use-of-force report for 2020, the number of reported incidents police attended that involved a firearm also trended upward, from 12 incidents in 2019 to 29 incidents in 2020, representing a 141.6 per cent increase.
“Our response in the use of our firearms is directly related to what we’re faced with, and that was sort of the theme that we saw in the last few months, is that the use of force has increased on our end because the use of violence on the street has increased,” Stevenson told SooToday Thursday.
The police chief says that following each firearms occurrence, there are debriefings on what officers saw. The police service is also increasing its training in order to deal with the growing amount of violence.
“We’re seizing shotguns, we’re seizing all kinds of firearms. We [executed] a warrant today where we had a shotgun. We’ve had several knife calls, we’ve had two homicide investigations at least, we’ve had three or four shootings minimum, we’ve had abducted people,” said Stevenson. “These are all dangerous situations where they’re putting the lives of my members at risk, as well as their own, and the public.”
Mental health and long-term addiction are the two issues the community is dealing with, Stevenson tells SooToday, but without access to a treatment centre for mental health and addiction issues, the city is perpetually mired in what he calls ‘circular justice’ where offenders know they’re not going to be held, and the conditions are simply on a piece of paper.
“These people need to be treated - they should not be released, they should be put into treatment facilities that we don’t have,” he said. “And the longer we go without dealing with this issue, the more circular the justice gets.”
The escalating violence is also being brought up at the Algoma Leadership Table, which includes representatives from health, education and social services sectors.
SooToday asked Stevenson if he thinks the violence will continue to escalate in 2021.
“I guess my honest answer is, I hope not,” he said. “I hope that we as a community, first of all, know and understand what our children and friends and family are going through, and we get them into some form of treatment before it has to get this far.”
According to the 2020 statistical report, officers are required by the Police Services Act to submit a use-of-force report when:
- drawing a handgun in the presence of a member of the public
- pointing a firearm at a person or discharging a firearm
- a weapon other than a firearm is used on another person
- physical force has been used on another person that results in an injury requiring medical attention
A use-of-force report is also required when a Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW) is used in probe mode, three point contact, stun mode and when the CEW is used as a “demonstrated force presence.” A total of 44 use-of-force reports in which a CEW was either displayed (37) or deployed (seven) were filed last year.