CALGARI –
Pat and Irene Heffernan have relived their son’s death many times.
Anthony Heffernan, a 27-year-old recovering from drug addiction, was shot four times by police – including three shots to the head and neck – after officers were called to a motel in Calgary on March 16, 2015.
Police said Heffernan behaved strangely while standing near beds with a lighter and syringe and disobeying orders to let them go.
The Alberta Incident Response Team, which is reviewing serious police action, has been investigated but no charges have been filed.
The Heffernans wonder what would have happened if he had been a mental health professional.
“You had five heavily armed officers. It’s just a nightmare. You can’t make it up,” said Heffernan’s mother, Irene, from her home in Prince Albert, Sask.
Pat Heffernan said his son was in crisis and that police stormed the hotel room.
“They seem to be trying to escalate the situation, not de-escalate it. “If they would come in calmly and talk to him, it might be a completely different story,” he said.
“What we wanted from this whole thing was not to happen to other people. We were naive, thinking it was something that rarely happens.”
A 2021 study in the Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being found that 75% of Canadian civilians killed in Canada were related to a person who had experienced a mental health crisis or was under the influence of a substance.
It says police used force about two percent of the time.
Psychologist Patrick Bailey, who is consulting with the Calgary Police Department, supports more training for officers. He said mental health professionals work in a team with staff, but are only sent as a secondary response after a safety assessment.
“The initial, most cost-effective approach is to train staff, better access to mental health professionals, more staff to consult 24 hours a day who can call someone,” Bailey said.
“If there was a larger core of clinical social workers, maybe a psychiatrist or two, that would also help.”
Bailey said Memphis police have dispatchers trained to recognize mental health calls, and about 20 percent of employees have been trained to deal with people in crisis.
Bailey acknowledges that obtaining mental health resources can be difficult.
“Ultimately, we are facing a growing number of mental health calls because of people who have fallen not through the cracks but through the cavernous holes we have in our system.”
Police in Lethbridge, Altania, saw a 19% drop in the use of violent clashes last year compared to 2020. About 28% of the subjects were in crisis at the time.
Current headquarters Sgt. Rick Semenuick said the service had added a second mental health specialist to pair with officers.
“It was very useful. “I can speak from personal experience,” he said.
“They had a relationship with the man and they talked to them and no force was ever used. It was done peacefully every time.”
Semenuick said Lethbridge employees receive mental health training each year and focus on communicating with those going through a crisis.
Vancouver Police launched a program in 1978 called Car 87, which brought together a police officer with a registered nurse or psychiatric nurse to provide on-site assessments and intervention – when there is no risk to safety – for people living with mental illness.
Sergeant Steve Addison said frontline officers are dealing with more serious cases.
“There is a huge mental health crisis here in Vancouver. “Our employees face people who live in psychosis, they often fight,” he said.
“They often come in contact with police officers because they fail. They don’t get the support they need above. “
Vancouver police are vocal in their need to provide social support for people with mental health problems, addictions, poverty and homelessness, Addison said.
“We are the first to react, but we are also the last resort for people in crisis, so at three in the morning, when someone is psychotic and brandishing a sword, or feels suicidal, or hangs on the side of a bridge, who calls?”
Specialists, crisis negotiation experts, are stationed several times a day when someone is suicidal, has an extreme episode of mental health or poses a risk to public safety, Addison said.
“We will be the first to call for more support for people living with these very, very complex needs so that they do not have to contact the police about what is often a mental health problem.
This Canadian Press report was first published on May 8, 2022.
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