Peterborough police have announced a “no-tolerance approach” to the open-air use of illicit drugs in public spaces, effective immediately.
Chief Stuart Betts announced what police are calling the “Safer Public Spaces” approach on Thursday (October 5) at the Peterborough police station on Water Street in downtown Peterborough.
“We have seen a proliferation of open-air drug use in our community,” Betts said. “Cannabis Act aside, we see people who are consuming drugs, ingesting drugs, (and) smoking drugs in our parks, our playgrounds, our bus shelters, (and) in front of our businesses. It’s creating an environment where community members have expressed concern and fear.”
Under the new approach, if police see open-air illicit drug use in a public space, or receive a call from a concerned resident about it, officers will approach the substance user and request they stop using drugs in that location and move to a different one, offering them information on where to find community services including the Consumption and Treatment Services on Simcoe Street, which is a legal location for the use of illicit injectable drugs.
If the substance user does not comply with the request, as a last resort police will arrest the person and seize their illegal drugs for destruction. Police will then unconditionally release the person, unless they have committed another criminal offence or if there is an outstanding warrant for their arrest.
“We do not want to criminalize anybody who has an addiction — that is not our intent,” Betts said. “Our intent is to ensure that they are provided with the resources they they need and the direction they need to where they can go to safely use these substances. To that end we will be providing our officers with information and documentation that they can hand out.”
VIDEO: Safer Public Spaces – Peterborough Police Service (October 5, 2023)
According to information posted on the police website, the new approach will initially focus on open-air illicit drug use in public spaces such as parks, playgrounds, bus shelters, and store fronts.
The homeless encampment on Wolfe Street “has not been factored into” the approach, Betts said, adding that “we’re in constant communication with the city as they continue to work on their plans and we will work with the city to support their plans.”
Police say residents, business owners, and members of city council have all expressed concerns about people openly using their drugs in public places in the community, and cite the results of a survey of city residents in which 48 per cent of respondents say they feel safe or very safe in the community, 67 per cent believe crime has increased in the community, and 71 per cent say their feelings about safety influence where they go and what they do in the community.
“The overall severity of crime has increased in our city over the past five years, while our clearance rates have continued to decrease,” Betts states in a media release, referring to the rate of known crime that results in an arrest. “We also know that much of the violent crime in our community, in the past few years, has been connected to the proliferation of illicit drugs. The drugs in our community are not only dangerous and unsafe, but they bring with them a level of violence to the people using them and by extension, to others in community. By using the safer public spaces approach we hope to give the community back a sense of safety.”
Police will be monitoring the Safer Public Spaces approach by recording the number of interactions between officers and substance users, whether the interactions resulted from reports by residents or from officers observing open-air drug use, the end result of the interactions (including whether the substance user left the location or were arrested), and where the interactions took place and the origin of calls for service from residents.
A Safer Public Spaces approach was announced by the Edmonton Police Service in September, although that initiative also includes “aggressive enforcement of those who are supplying and carrying out the drug trade.”
