Use of force incidents by York Regional Police remain the lowest in the Greater Toronto Area.
Police intervened in 429,000 situations in 2023 and had to use force in 265 individual incidents, according to a presentation by the police authority presented to the police services board March 27.
Police officers are authorized under the Criminal Code of Canada to use reasonable force as necessary while carrying out their lawful duties. When an officer has displayed or applied reportable force or utilized a force option as defined by regulation, the officer must complete and submit a use of force report.
Incidents include when a handgun is drawn in the community or when someone, such as a suspect, points a firearm at a person or discharges a firearm, when physical force resulting in injury and medical attention is used, or when a conducted energy weapon is used on a person or an animal.
Police state that 86 per cent of the 265 use-of-force incidents were resolved by de-escalating the situation. They, however, note that they saw a 180 per cent increase in encounters with subjects armed with firearms.
In 2022, officers encountered 53 subjects armed with a firearm, versus 149 armed subjects in 2023.
As a result of training in de-escalation strategies, 86 per cent of the of the 265 use-of-force incidents were resolved by de-escalating the situation, the report noted. Training includes equipping members with crisis-intervention skills that focus on de-escalation techniques, which include effective communication,
the barriers to communication and the elements of implicit bias.
You can read the full report here.
