Experts say brain damage from repeated toxic drug overdoses could be causing increased aggression
.
Vancouver police fired their weapons more times in the first eight months of 2022 than in the past 15 years, according to a Postmedia analysis of police use-of-force data.
Announcement 2
.
As of August 31, VPD officers had fired weapons in the line of duty six times this year, more than in any year since at least 2007. Two of the shootings were fatal.
.
The jump in police shootings followed a three-year period, from 2018 to 2020, in which VPD officers did not shoot.
The increase in shootings coincides with an increase in violent behavior that many experts associate with an increase in the toxicity of street drugs and a reduction in health and social services due to the pandemic.
Public security authorities have said that police have faced an increase in interactions with armed subjects, including people carrying firearms.
A report of a Expert Panel on repeat offenders in BC that was published last week suggested that repeated overdoses from BC’s toxic drug supply could be contributing to increased aggression.
Announcement 3
.
“The supply of toxic drugs (is) contributing to unpredictable and sometimes violent behavior patterns,” wrote the report’s authors, Amanda Butler, an SFU criminologist, and Doug LePard, a former VPD deputy chief and former police chief. Transit.
“Repeated nonfatal overdoses are resulting in increasing rates of acquired brain injury,” they wrote, “and research has strongly shown that aggression and agitation are common consequences of brain injury.”
In addition, they wrote, “the number of people presenting with methamphetamine-induced psychosis has ‘skyrocketed’ in BC emergency departments.”
The increased use of firearms by the VPD closely follows provincial trends, according to Ron MacDonald, chief civilian director of the BC Bureau of Independent Investigations. He said IOI records show that police shootings in BC have more than doubled this year compared to last year.
Announcement 4
.
“We’ve had a huge increase in (police) shootings this year in British Columbia,” MacDonald said, noting that in six months “we’ve had 2½ times as many shootings” as his office would normally investigate.
“It has spread throughout the province,” he said, noting that police have fired their weapons in the line of duty in places as varied as Barriere, Campbell River, Houston, Kamloops, Keremeos, Langley, Nanaimo, Prince George and Saanich. , in addition to Surrey and Vancouver.
“There are an unusual number of cases this year involving firearms or items that look like firearms,” MacDonald said, adding that as investigations continue, he was unable to give specific numbers.
“A high percentage of these cases involving people who are shot appear to be in possession of some type of firearm,” MacDonald said. “And that’s very unusual.”
ad 5
.
In two of the six cases in which VPD officers fired weapons, the suspects had fired at the officers, according to Sgt. Steve Addison, VPD spokesman. Suspects in three incidents had weapons, including one in July in which Addison said an officer was “attacked through the open window of his squad car by an armed suspect.”
“The officer remains off duty with a brain injury,” Addison said.
The sixth shooting involved a bear that had strayed into a residential neighborhood.
Suspects were killed by police gunfire in two of five VPD-related shootings this year, according to the IOI.
In one case, police shot and killed a man near Commercial Drive after he shot at officers, Addison said. In the other, Addison said officers shot and killed a man while responding to reports of an assault with a gun inside the Hotel Patricia.
MacDonald was unable to say anything “about the justification of the police” in either case, but acknowledged that “British Columbia has a higher rate of officer-involved shootings than the rest of the country.”
More news, less ads, faster loading time: Get unlimited ad-lite access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites for just $14/month or $140/year. Subscribe now through The Vancouver Sun or The province.