Outreach teams of Kawartha Lakes Police Service blend law enforcement with support services

The Advocate’s Robyn Best spent a day with the local police force, documenting their work.

It’s common, especially online, to discuss tents in our city parks and people who make us uncomfortable hanging around in our downtown core. Like many, maybe you’ve even judged them.

However, the people in these situations haven’t decided to be where they are; a variety of circumstances have led them there, according to local police. They are representative of a larger issue happening in Kawartha Lakes and across Canada, one that Kawartha Lakes Police Service is trying to combat.

Through outreach teams, the KLPS is trying to build trust with residents facing addiction and mental health challenges. By pairing officers with health professionals, their substance abuse and mental health units not only offer direct support to those in crisis, but they also work to educate the public and reduce stigma surrounding vulnerable communities.

Using unmarked cars, the two teams have similar objectives. The substance abuse team drives around to places they know people in need tend to go, offering them food, water, hygienic products, as well as offering several resources they can take advantage of. This team consists of an officer and an addictions counsellor. In this case, it’s Constable Mike Stratford and Robyn Mather. I set out with them one morning in the middle of July’s heat wave to experience what community outreach is like from their perspective.

Much of the job is driving around, given the itinerant lifestyle of the people they are trying to help. They stop at several parks and along town streets – wherever they believe assistance is needed. When they approach a tent, it’s clearly done with empathy, given their earlier conversations with me. They visit occupants, introduce themselves by their first names, and, perhaps most importantly, make direct eye contact with everyone they meet. Essentially, as they explained, they’re allowing people who are in very vulnerable positions to feel like a person.

The first visit brought the team to a tent, tucked away in a corner in an attempt to stay away from prying eyes, to talk with a man who had recently been put out on the streets. After suffering a neck injury at work, he had started using drugs for pain control. A white bandage on his left arm indicated a newer injury he had obtained recently, one that without proper treatment could lead to a serious infection.

“It was a good first reaction,” Stratford said. “He didn’t run, so he’s looking for help.” They let him know about services available like A Place Called Home and 111 William Street North, which often allow drop-ins. Now the next step is to let other agencies in the city be aware of him so they can get him as much help as needed.

The building known simply as 111 William Street offers a lot of resources. “They will feed them, give them some food. Give them some snacks. If they need some paperwork done, they can help facilitate that. With the community paramedics being there, it’s great, they’ll get bandages changed,” Mather said, referencing the man in the park with the injured arm.

A lot of the work the team is doing is to try and reduce the stigma that those dealing with substance abuse or mental health crises face. “All of us are one incident away from being in their same position,” Stratford said.

While leaving to get some water for the man in the tent, a bystander inquired as to what Stratford and Mather were doing in the park. He had been homeless, so he was quick to understand the work the two were doing, but Mather said oftentimes members of the public they interact with haven’t been in a similar situation and need more education on what these types of programs are trying to accomplish.

They often will get calls for behaviour that the public has chosen to criminalize. “There are calls for people that aren’t doing anything, they’re not bothering anybody. You’re just calling the police on somebody for just living their life – they’re not doing anything that’s criminal, and that just adds to the stigma,” Mathers said, pointing out that living in a tent isn’t a crime.

The other kind of call police often get is about people asking for money outside of banks. While the teams responding know that they’re “not trying to hurt anybody,” the public may not realize that, even if they’re not being aggressive.

Stratford and Mathers spent a long time gaining the trust of one woman. They would stop every time they saw her and offer her resources. Finally, one day she said she was ready for treatment. Now she’s out of Kawartha Lakes and they text with her routinely to know she’s still on the right path.

Another man who they received many calls about outside a grocery store took a while to build trust with. Now “he has housing, he’s doing well,” Stratford said. They still check in on him while they’re out because all it takes is one misstep for them to be back to where they were, and it’s easier to be proactive.

Mental Health

While this team is trying to gain the trust of those in vulnerable situations, the mental health team is doing similar outreach elsewhere. With the sun at its zenith, I meet up with Constable Taylor Stewart and Shelia Carron, a community response registered nurse.

When a team isn’t on duty, certain calls are flagged as needing a follow-up. That task often falls to the mental health team. They spend their time going to different addresses, trying to make contact with these individuals.

It’s not always easy. “The occurrence address might be where the occurrence happened, it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where they live,” Carron said, saying it’s common to have to go to five addresses to find somebody.

The duo have fobs for many of the apartment buildings in the area, to allow for quick access when they’re doing a check.

One follow-up they were doing was on a woman who had many people living in her apartment. She was most likely being taken advantage of, according to police, but she refused to make them leave. “We don’t have the legal authority to just kick them out,” Stewart said. The person living in the unit has to want the person to be gone for the police to be able to do anything. “That individual has the right to have whoever they want in their unit.”

Many of the people in situations like this are being taken advantage of and may not fully realize it. “A lot of it is just building a relationship with the client and educating them and trying to break through to them that this is happening,” Stewart said.

Similar to the substance abuse team, there are still legalities they have to follow. City outreach workers, like Mather, cannot go onto private property even if there are tents there; nor can she open any tents. However, the police can for wellness checks, something Stratford did while the Advocate was with them. When nobody in a tent responded to him, he opened the tent up to find it was empty, but he had to check to ensure nobody is in distress.

The two also check in to see if people are making it to their court appearances. Stratford says they work closely with probation officers to try and prevent more charges being added. “Our probation knows we’re dealing with them, instead of just having the court get a warrant right away. They chat with us, see if we’ve had some interaction with them,” she says.

“If we can locate them, I find a lot of them – they just get overwhelmed.”

There tends to be distrust between many people on the streets and the police. So the teams go in knowing they aren’t necessarily getting somebody willing to get help right away. One woman they have attended to often has been out on the streets for years.

“We’ve tried to get her hooked up with resources, and at this point, she’s just not willing. So, we’re hoping every time we just get a little bit more information to her, and at some point, she’ll be ready,” Stratford said.

The outreach team is looking to help someone as much as they are willing to accept help. Mathers says that they get gift cards donated, but they often go with the person to ensure the cards aren’t just getting sold. “If you want a coffee and donut, let’s go get you a coffee. If you need some food, we’re happy to go with you or go get it for you,” she said.

The mental health team, just like the addictions team, intends to build trust, not to make people feel like they’ve committed a crime – which many have not. They’ve often gotten calls about tents up at Lindsay’s Memorial Park. Instead of telling the people in tents they must go elsewhere, Stratford told them to just move the tents further back, away from where they could be easily seen by families with young kids. They listened, without incident.

“A lot of people are trying not to be out in the open,” Mathers said, again pointing to the fact that people aren’t looking to be in a situation like this and don’t want others to know where they are.

Both teams are also taking regular 911 calls while doing outreach. The mental health team tries to attend any calls that involve “mental health, suicidal or well-being checks, (or) maybe a dementia patient that’s gone missing,” Carron said.

People can register themselves or a loved one onto the vulnerable person’s registry, something that Carron and Stewart can help people do online. This can allow those who would be considered vulnerable (for example, if they have dementia, autism, or manic episodes), to be listed as a higher priority for checks.

People dealing with their mental health aren’t always ready to take the steps to get help right away. “People don’t understand that people have the right to live as unwell as they want to, as long as it doesn’t harm them,” Stewart said. “A lot of people are like ‘this person needs help.’ We are well aware that people need help, and we would love to help them, but we can’t force that help on them.”

As the afternoon wraps up, I think back to the morning outreach team of Stratford and Mather. I asked how they’re able to just step away from everything they see at the end of the day.

Stratford says it’s not something you can always do. He goes home and still worries about the vulnerable people on the streets. To try and help in his own way he volunteers with the army cadets. “We do lots of training and teaching on substances and how you could be in that position,” Stratford says, hoping to be able to prevent more people from getting into these situations.

There is no easy solution for addressing homelessness, addiction, and mental health challenges, but Kawartha Lakes Police Service’s outreach programs are offering alternative approaches based on empathy and engagement for those who are most vulnerable.