Last month’s Greater Sudbury Police Service crackdown on open drug use in Sudbury’s downtown successfully reduced occurrences, according to numbers shared by police.
“We’ve gained this ground,” Chief Sara Cunningham said during the Dec. 17 police board meeting, adding, “We’re going to continue with great momentum.”
Sustained foot patrols will continue through downtown Sudbury, including the use of such devices as fat bikes to keep police rolling through the area during the winter months.
“We’ve gone back to foot patrols to have our people in the downtown continue to support our community and continue to work with the city and have those collaborative conversations on where we’re going together,” Cunnigham said.
Even before last month’s crackdown, Cunningham said police were maintaining a sustained presence downtown, including a public tip to the fact they were cracking down with targetted patrols in November. As such, the first-week baseline of open-air drug use was impacted.
Even so, the 26 occurrences of open drug-use recorded by police during the first week of November dropped to 16 occurrences by the second week, eight during week three and seven by week four – a 73-per-cent reduction compared to the first week.
“It was a very successful project,” Cunningham said. “People are feeling safer in the downtown core.”
Police have been striving to link people up with community supports first and make arrests and drug seizures last, which Cunningham said they were more likely to do as November progressed.
“Those individuals who have been repeatedly engaged with, that were still open air drug use, many of those individuals had their drugs seized or were charged and arrested.”
According to GSPS month-end statistics, there were:
- 18 warnings for drug possession
- Two arrests for drug trafficking
- One arrest for possession for the purpose of trafficking
- Two arrests for drug possession
- One loaded 9mm handgun seized (incident to arrest)
Drugs with a total street value of $6,905 were also seized, including 41 grams of powder cocaine, 10.2 grams of crack cocaine, 17.3 grams of fentanyl and 11 percocet pills.
Deputy Chief Natalie Hiltz provided Sudbury.com with additional context regarding the crackdown following Wednesday’s meeting, during which she stressed that GSPS was only one part of a broader community effort in tackling open drug use and homelessness.
“Week by week as our officers did the groundwork connecting people to services, then we saw those reductions really start to happen,” she said. “We don’t own that win.”
During the month, police made 190 “supports referrals,” of which 30 were accepted, 103 were declined and 58 had an unknown outcome.
These “supports referrals” are all-encompassing, Hiltz said, noting that they could be police referring people to Health Sciences North, a soup kitchen, warming centre or any number of a long list of community supports available through partner organizations.
When it comes to the 103 refusals, she said, “That gives us a lot of food for thought.”
“As a deputy chief, I would like to know, how are those service referrals being made, and then being self-critical and ask ourselves, why are they being declined? Is there something we could do better?”
This will all be analyzed in the wake of the November crackdown to determine where these gaps might exist in police activity and/or the community organizations police refer people to.
As it stands, Hiltz said police stand by community advocacy for more shelter spaces, affordable housing, addictions and mental health treatment, which have all been in short supply.
“It really does take a village,” she said.
Earlier this week, Nickel Belt NDP MPP France Gélinas noted that years-long waits to get mental health support are making matters go “from bad to worse,” and the city’s well-established need for more transitional housing units is currently in bureaucratic limbo between the municipal, provincial and federal governments.
In a recent poll commissioned by GSPS and conducted by a third party, drug use and homelessness topped Greater Sudburians’ list of concerns.
During Wednesday’s police board meeting, members commended police intervention in downtown Sudbury, which chair Gerry Lougheed called “a job well done.”
“We had great expectations for November and we met them,” Lougheed said, crediting police for helping reduce instances of tresspassing, discarded syringes and other debris in the area.
Although a GSPS crackdown on downtown Sudbury, including the city’s sanctioned encampment at Energy Court, was celebrated by the police board on Wednesday, front-line workers have been critical of police involvement.
Cracking down on open drug use is pushing people into the shadows, where there’s no one there to perform life-saving measures, public health nurse Tina Skjonsby-McKinnon told Sudbury.com.
“When individuals are displaced or fear police contact, they often use drugs in more hidden and unsafe settings,” Réseau ACCESS Network education and engagement manager Kaela Pelland said in a statement to Sudbury.com. “This increases the risk of fatal overdose, HIV and hepatitis C transmission, and various infections through sharing of equipment, rushed or unsterile injection, inhalation or snorting. This also makes outreach and peer support far more difficult.”
-With files from Jenny Lamothe.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.