The acting chief of Windsor Police says there's a clear correlation between some recent incidents in the city and mental health issues.
On Tuesday, officers arrested a man after he was allegedly waving a knife downtown. That follows the incident last week where a 70-year-old man was shot by police and later died in hospital.
Jason Bellaire says unfortunately it's not unusual for officers to deal with calls about individuals with weapons.
"We had one a little while ago where an individual was swinging a hammer at people and the officers disarmed him," he continued. "The police, we continue to be the primary response service and point of contact for people who are experiencing mental health crisis, and for people experiencing homelessness or having substance use issues."
For police officers, paramedics, hospital staff and anyone associated with the front lines, Bellaire says there are more and more issues to deal with and an increased frequency of calls related to them.
Bellaire says when he first heard a few years ago that up to 70% of all calls for service were related to mental health, he thought that was high, but over time he's seen the nexus between criminal behaviour and the need for mental health treatment.
"I've gotta be really honest, I've grown really weary of the demands foisted on our members and police officers really in general to resolve situations where other agencies just aren't stepping up or structuring themselves adequately. Or taking really full ownership of what shouldn't be purely in the lane of police response," he stated.
He says they're willing to contribute more to collaborative strategies, like the Windsor Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team partnership with Hôtel-Dieu Grace, not only because they have no choice but because it's what the community needs from their police service.
Bellaire says they're also handcuffed when it comes to where to transport people struggling with mental health issues.
"Either they're so mild that we can bring them voluntarily somewhere to one of the satellite services outside the ER, but anything beyond that it has to be so severe that we can apprehend that person under the Mental Health Act and bring them to the ER. Which presents another problem, we have officers spending an exorbitant amount of time in the hospital, waiting to have people admitted into really the only show in town."
Bellaire says he's very tired of having to speak to scenarios where officers, or other members of the WPS, are being put in situations and being judged because certain people in the community have been failed by other supports and levels of government.
- with files from AM800's The Morning Drive