THUNDER BAY — The Thunder Bay Police Service released its 2023 annual report, highlighting rising cases of post-traumatic stress disorder in the service.
Chief of Police Darcy Fleury presented the annual report to the police board last week.
Well-being has been added to the police service's objectives for 2024, said Fleury, "the well-being of our employees, the building, the mental health, the workplace safety (and) the respectable workplace.”
When we see that an officer has been into some critical event or some traumatic event, he said they have a briefing with them regarding reaching out to practitioners and ensuring they’re safe.
The police services plans to expand on their existing procedures, said Fleury.
“We do have our peer-to-peer, where people can see that somebody’s maybe struggling a little bit and have them sort of get involved and help those people out. And so we are working on those programs. We do have those in place and we want to continue to develop that,” said Fleury.
A previous report showed that 18 out of 80 WSIB claims made by on-duty officers in 2023 were for PTSD.
There is variation in what conditions officers are going through and what they’re facing, as far as how they’re managing their own personal situation, said Fleury. He said some officers are off long-term, some of them are shorter-term and some people don’t go off work, but they manage it in other ways with whoever they’re working with.
“I think that as we go forward, that’s really what we want to concentrate on,” said Fleury.
“We’re working with the agencies to get a better understanding on that ... trying to find ways that are maybe, probably healthier for them to stay in the work environment in whatever capacity they can,with whatever restrictions they have. So, we’re really working hard towards going down that avenue and all with the idea that what’s best for our employees is first.”
Fleury said anytime officers have missed time, other people have to work overtime to cover those resource shortages, putting a drain on the service.
"It’s really important that we help our employees and if that includes finding ways to keep them at the office so that they stay engaged in some form or another so that they’re not suffering or being felt like they’re not part of it so we really want to concentrate on that,” said Fleury.
Fleury also discussed with the board the results of his recent public consultations.
In many meetings he had with the public and business, he said, everybody wants to see the same thing: ‘more of a presence and more visibility.’
However, Fleury said the pressures on the policing due to some of these more priority cases or areas have led to cuts and scaling down of their community programs, including foot patrol and community-oriented policing.
“Probably a lot of people in the community have heard me say this time and again: there is still a real demand on the service for calls to mental health and we are working very closely with our partners and different agencies to find ways that we can streamline police involvement in that,” said Fleury.
“So, we’re really ensuring that the person is getting the proper care they need because really we find it there has to be some enforcement on some things where it becomes a criminal or a justice piece that we have to get involved with.”
Fleury noted that reported cases of family violence have also risen to a pretty high number for a community this size. He said the service is increasing its prevention and awareness work.
“Really when it gets to a point where we have to interject and an enforcement piece, it’s too late, right? So, we want to try to get a little bit more of an awareness so that we can help to prevent some of the violence that we’re seeing."
