Despite an increase of police-public interactions, York Regional Police use-of-force incidents remain the lowest in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), according to 2023 statistics presented to the Police Services Board on March 27, 2024.
York Regional Police officers had more than 429,000 interactions with the public in 2023. Of the total interactions, 265 individual incidents led to use of force by police, accounting for 0.0616 per cent. In Ontario, police officers are authorized by the Criminal Code of Canada to use reasonable force as necessary while carrying out their lawful duties. When an officer has displayed or applied reportable force or utilized a force option as defined by regulation, the officer must complete and submit a Use of Force Report. Those reports are completed when:
- A handgun is drawn in the presence of a member of the public or when a member points a firearm at a person or discharges a firearm. A member of the public includes a suspect or arrested person
- A member uses a weapon other than a firearm on another person
- A member uses physical force on another person that results in an injury requiring medical attention
- A member deploys a Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW) on a person or an animal or displays an activated CEW
As a result of extensive training in de-escalation strategies, 86 per cent of the of the 265 use-of-force incidents were resolved by de-escalating the situation. That training includes equipping members with crisis-intervention skills that focus on de-escalation techniques, which include effective communication, the barriers to communication and the elements of implicit bias.
Also of note in the 2023 Use of Force Report, York Regional Police saw a 180 per cent increase in encounters with subjects armed with firearms. In 2022 officers encountered 53 subjects armed with a firearm, versus 149 armed subjects in 2023.
The 2023 Use of Force Report can be downloaded from the York Region Police Services Board website at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/mpud7k4e
“Given the dynamic nature of police encounters, officers cannot eliminate the necessity to use force in some situations, however, York Regional Police continues to collaborate with subject matter experts and consult with community members to improve officers’ critical decision-making skills, de-escalation strategies, anti-bias policing and response to people in crisis,” said Chief Jim MacSween.
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