CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — After months of discussions, Charlottetown is looking to involve police more in handling the complaints and fears about drugs and drug users in the city.
Deputy Mayor Alanna Jankov raised a notice of motion at the end of the Aug. 14 council meeting, proposing to add a motion to the agenda for the next meeting on Aug. 28.
The motion called for council to direct Charlottetown Police Services to create a community plan to share with the public.
“(It will address) illicit drug use and related illegal behaviours, to help residents feel safer in their homes and neighbourhoods,” the motion said.
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While Jankov wasn’t sure just what this will look like, she hopes to ease fears about the clients of the Community Outreach Centre, but also the fears of those clients, she said in an interview after the Aug. 14 meeting.
“A lot of questions that we just don’t have the answers to. A lot of it’s operational. A lot of it flows through several levels of government.”
Jankov said it is premature to say what the police will actually do, but the process will involve reporting and statistics and trying to answer the council’s many questions.
"Police services have many facets of their department. They are dealing with mental health and addictions. They deal directly with the different levels of government when it comes to health and the mobile (mental health) unit.” – Deputy Mayor Alanna Jankov
Asked about the message it sends by involving law enforcement in a health and social service, Jankov said more police involvement isn’t just about more enforcement, though she did say hiring more police may also help.
“Police services have many facets of their department,” she said. “They are dealing with mental health and addictions. They deal directly with the different levels of government when it comes to health and the mobile (mental health) unit.”
Outreach centre location
Coun. Mitchell Tweel sees the role of the police and the outreach centre in a more straightforward light.
“Police need to look at, number one, what’s illegal, what’s not illegal,” he said in an interview after the Aug. 14 meeting.
“We’ve got to get back to old-fashioned policing and start to protect the residents. That’s why they’re paying taxes.”
For Tweel, the motion is a useful tool in the council’s toolbox. However, he said there is only one answer to the problem: moving the outreach centre and related services to a non-residential area.
The hospital area is a possibility, but he wants more public consultation, saying the province neglected this in the past.
Looking at transportation for people who may be unhoused or unable to transport themselves, Tweel said the province currently buses outreach centre clients to some services.
In the short term, though, the city needs to do more enforcement, he said.
Police response
Earlier this year, Charlottetown police hired two full-time officers to handle issues surrounding the outreach centre, and the centre hired two of its own security earlier this month.
Charlottetown police Chief Brad MacConnell has also told SaltWire and the council in recent months that police are visible at the outreach centre on many occasions for non-emergency outreach visits where officers drop in to build trust with clients before a crisis happens.
MacConnell also noted during the Aug. 14 meeting the province had Charlottetown police install E-Watch cameras overlooking the outreach centre.
But none of this has made a difference, Tweel said.
“Absolutely not. I mean, it’s been two years and I haven’t seen any enhancements or any improvements, and neither do the residents.”
Roxanne Carter-Thompson, executive director of the Adventure Group which runs the outreach centre, recently told CBC the service sees almost 300 clients each month.
Since Jan. 1, 2022, P.E.I. has had 90 opioid-related accidental overdoses, with 24 deaths.
Logan MacLean is a municipal reporter with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. He can be reached by email at logan.macLean@theguardian.pe.ca and followed on Twitter @loganmaclean94.
