Editor:
RE: Drunk tank outdated, no guarantee of health and safety: B.C. watchdog
Kudos to the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) of BC for calling for an end to intoxication arrests and calling on the province to move to non-police responses—health care supports—for people who are intoxicated and need care. IIO Director Ronald MacDonald is absolutely correct in saying, “The care of intoxicated persons should not be a police responsibility. It is a health care issue.”
Criminological research on police deaths in detention backs up the IIO’s warning and call for change. People in British Columbia may not be aware of how dangerous, and often deadly, intoxication arrests are. My own research finds that there have been at least four deaths following intoxication arrests so far in Canada, and at least six in 2022.
As a society we are starting to understand that we need community care resources for many of the issues that are currently handled by police. Providing health care and medical supports for people in crisis due to intoxication, rather than arresting them, is one such area.
We can only hope that the provincial government will heed this call. It is literally a matter of life and death.
READ MORE: Drunk tank outdated, no guarantee of health and safety: B.C. watchdog
Dr. Jeff Shantz
Department of Criminology
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Surrey