THUNDER BAY — An extension could be in store for a 60-day foot patrol pilot project.
“It’s going very well. It’s well received by the businesses, in the north and south core and by community members,” Thunder Bay Police Service Deputy Chief Ryan Hughes told Newswatch in an interview.
The street team has made close to 50 referrals to get vulnerable individuals connected to social services since the pilot began nearly a month ago, he said.
The initiative, called Project Support, launched on April 20 and is led by the city’s community oriented response and engagement unit.
The initiative has two objectives. The first focuses on pairing officers with social navigators or community integration team coordinators as visible foot patrols in the north and south downtown cores to address rising public safety, mental health and addiction concerns.
The second is to free up other officers to respond to emergency calls for service.
The foot patrol focuses on care rather than enforcement, connecting vulnerable individuals with resources such as addiction treatment, mental health services, and housing supports.
The program is separate from an existing partnership between city police and the Canadian Mental Health Association that sees specialized mental health workers attend specific 911 calls alongside officers.
“It’s a soft approach,” Hughes said, where officers try to get help for vulnerable people who are on the streets.
He said the objective is to work with partnering agencies to connect people with social services. But for people who do not accept those resources and repeatedly choose to remain in the area, officers will resort to enforcement to move them along.
“We don’t want to get there,” Hughes said.
He explained that after 60 days, the police will review the project’s progress and determine if it has reached its two goals.
“Community members are already saying they feel safer, walking around the north and south cores, so we want to keep that up so our public feels safe in the community,” Hughes said.
“We’ll collect all the data, and we’ll look at it, and if it’s been successful in reducing issues within the cops that are causing our frontline offices a lot of problems, then we will look at restructuring some of our areas and units to possibly do this on a permanent basis,” he added.
