Pubdate: Fri, 16 Feb 2018
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2018 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Wendy Gillis
Page: GT4

SIU REFUSES TO CHANGE NALOXONE RULES

Watchdog stands firm on requirement it be notified in cases involving
the drug

Ontario's police watchdog is pushing back at chiefs for suggesting
their officers might hesitate to provide the life-saving drug naloxone
out of fear that it could prompt an investigation by the civilian agency.

In a strongly worded letter Thursday, the director of the Special
Investigations Unit (SIU) said the agency would not back down on its
expectation that it be notified in cases where a civilian is injured
or dies after an officer administers naloxone, a drug that can reverse
the effects of an opioid overdose.

The message comes in response to a request from the Ontario
Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) that the SIU dispense with its
expectation that it be notified when the drug is administered by
officers but a death or injury nonetheless occurs. A central reason
the OACP provided was that the policy could discourage officers from
acting quickly to save lives.

SIU director Tony Loparco took issue with that purported
fear.

"The SIU rejects the contention that the vast majority of police
officers might do anything less than act swiftly in the discharge of
their foremost duty, namely, the preservation of life, for fear that
their conduct will be subject to a fair and independent
investigation."

Loparco goes on to say that such an investigation is "precisely the
answer for the small minority of officers who may have fallen short in
their duty, a position with which the OACP presumably agrees."

The back-and-forth about police naloxone use comes as more front line
officers in Ontario - including Ottawa, Waterloo, Durham and the OPP -
are being equipped with the live-saving kits in the fight against the
opioid crisis sweeping Canada.

In a report to the Toronto police board released Thursday, Chief Mark
Saunders outlines a proposed plan for "structured deployment" of
naloxone nasal spray, including to every front line officer in
Toronto's downtown core.

Opioid-related overdose deaths have more than doubled in Toronto in
the past five years, with 186 in 2016 alone.

In his report, Saunders writes that a structured deployment "would in
all likelihood assist in alleviating public and officer concerns
regarding opioid safety issues, particularly in neighbourhoods
surrounding supervised injection sites."

That deployment would see naloxone nasal spray being carried by all
members of the Toronto drug squad; sergeants and detectives in some
units across the city; and by officers and supervisors in the front
line Primary Response, Community Response and Major Crime units in the
divisions where there are supervised injection sites.

Saunders' report also takes into consideration the SIU position on
notification, saying the impact of numerous notifications and
invocations of the SIU mandate "would be organizationally significant
and detrimental to our members."

But in his written response to the OACP, Loparco said the SIU's
mandate as outlined by Ontario's Police Services Act, is clear: the
watchdog investigates police officers in cases of serious injury or
death.

Loparco stressed the findings of Ontario court judge George Adams, who
in a 2003 review of the SIU stated that the watchdog should be
notified immediately whenever its jurisdiction is "reasonably
suspected to have been engaged."

It is then up to the SIU - not to police services - to determine
whether the SIU mandate has been invoked, Loparco said.

He goes on to indicate that being notified of an incident such as a
death following the administration of naloxone could result in no
investigation being opened at all, or the discontinuation of a probe
at an early stage. The expectation that the SIU be notified is also
present in other deaths after a police officer attempts to save a life
by, for example, performing CPR.

The watchdog is in fact "regularly notified of serious injuries and
deaths where the extent of the police involvement is emergency medical
treatment."

"I see no reason to carve out an exception in naloxone cases," Loparco
wrote.

Ian Scott, a former director of the SIU, told the Star that he agrees
with Loparco "completely." Ontario's legislation establishes that the
SIU decides whether an incident merits an independent investigation -
not the police themselves.

"The lines are very clear the legislation is very clear and they
should abide by the legislation," Scott said.

The SIU's position on naloxone differs from police watchdogs in other
provinces, including Alberta, B.C. and Quebec, where it's not expected
that police notify them when the only extent of police involvement is
administering life-saving measures.

According to Saunders' report to the Toronto police board, the RCMP in
British Columbia invested "a great deal of time" in "educating" the
province's watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office (IIO), on
naloxone.

That included providing statistical data on opioid deaths to show that
the watchdog would be "unnecessarily overwhelmed and overworked if
they invoked their mandate in cases where an officer administered
naloxone and the person still passed away from an overdose," the
report states.

It goes on to report that IIO changed its policy on notification,
saying that the sole circumstance under which the watchdog would
invoke their mandate to investigate would be if naloxone is
administered by an officer while the person is in custody and a death
nonetheless occurs.

The Toronto police board is scheduled to discuss the naloxone
deployment on Feb. 22.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt