Statistics on the use of force by Edmonton police officers and criminals fleeing from police dominated Thursday’s monthly meeting of the Edmonton Police Commission. Members of the commission were presented with data on how many incidents of police use of force were reported, with the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) noting that reports of violent incidents are on the rise.
Rise in Violent Incidents
Acting Insp. Glen Klose attributed the increase to a series of extortions. “We have some concerns with the number of extortions that are occurring,” Klose said. “With extortions naturally comes violence.” The increase in numbers also correlates with EPS responding to more incidents, the report said.
Despite the uptick in violence, 86 per cent of reported incidents did not result in injuries to non-officers. Reports of injuries to those arrested are also on the downturn. Officers were not injured in 97.5 per cent of reported incidents.
De-escalation Training
Klose said that EPS training is trying to emphasize de-escalation techniques in an effort to decrease injuries to non-officers. “Making sure that we’re communicating as effectively as possible, understanding what this person is going through at this moment, and how does that allow us to slow a situation down,” Klose said.
Police distinguish use of force incidents between potential use of force and actual use of force. Members of the commission noted that batons were rarely used in both instances, and when asked if EPS would consider phasing out batons in order to save money on training and purchasing, police said they are already looking into the possibility.
Criminal Flights
Unlike the use of force being attributed to more responses, the commission said the statistics on criminals who flee from police changed from year to year in a non-linear way. EPS said they could not find a historical trend to explain them. They emphasized that what mattered more was duration, with the majority of pursuits lasting less than one minute. “With certain durations, risk is going to go up.”
EPS was mostly successful in terms of intervening with a criminal fleeing, with a 95.1 per cent success rate. They have also been successful on the prevention front, with a 97.2 per cent success rate when police are able to act into a preventable situation. They cited a hypothetical instance of preventing a fleeing impaired driver by taking proper precautions when they are reported to have passed out in their vehicle.
“I think we need to look at the trends not only within the city, but across Canada, North America, and the globe and ask where is the future of policing?” Klose said. “Where we could probably see some improvement is data sharing between all the different types of policing and law enforcement. You have to look at the data to make sure that you are putting your efforts into the right position.”
