Ottawa police, feeling the crunch of ER wait times, launching special-constable pilot project

The program comes in light of increased demands for service.

Published Jan 22, 2024 • Last updated 21 minutes ago • 3 minute read

Ottawa police Chief Eric Stubbs Photo by Tony Caldwell /POSTMEDIA

Ottawa’s police chief wants to see sworn members spending less time in hospital waiting rooms and more time attending to calls.

The Ottawa Police Service is launching a pilot project that will have special constables waiting in hospital emergency rooms with people in a mental health crisis, in an effort to take pressure off sworn members, Chief Eric Stubbs says.

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The program comes in light of increased demands for service. Total calls for service increased by 17 per cent for the Ottawa Police Service between 2022 and 2023.

Stubbs told reporters and the Ottawa Police Services Board that “a number of duties” tie up the time of the force’s sworn officers, including waiting in emergency rooms with people who are in police custody under the Mental Health Act. The Mental Health Act is provincial legislation that states police “must maintain custody of persons apprehended under the Mental Health Act taken to hospital or another medical facility.”

A “safer alternative response” mental health project is set to launch downtown this summer, aiming to have police attend fewer mental health and substance use crisis situations. But police will still get involved if the person needs to be apprehended, Stubbs said, adding “hopefully that’s not needed, and they can resolve these issues without police. That’s the goal.”

Mental health calls have been rising over the years, and “we know the ERs are very busy,” Stubbs said, “We wait a number of hours before we present a client to a doctor, and, legislatively, we are required to do so.” But having sworn officers waiting with people in emergency rooms is “not a good use of time or money,” Stubbs says.

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He clarified the special constables won’t be attending to mental health calls and determining if a person needs to be apprehended. Rather, the special constables will attend the hospital to assist sworn members who are waiting with multiple clients to be seen by medical professionals.

According to data compiled by Health Quality Ontario published in November 2023, on average patients waited 2.1 hours to be first assessed by a doctor in emergency rooms in hospitals across Ontario. Ottawa’s emergency room wait times are above the provincial average, with patients waiting an average of 3.5 hours at hospitals across the city — 3.9 hours at The Ottawa Hospital’s General campus, 3.1 hours at the Civic campus, 2.8 hours at the Queensway Carleton Hospital and 2.6 at Montfort Hospital. For “low-urgency” cases not admitted to hospital, the average patient waited nearly five hours at the emergency room, according to the data set.

“As we all know, it’s very busy,” Stubbs said. “We wait for hours.”

Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr said she was in an emergency room recently and saw four different officers waiting with clients.

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“Surely on a night like that, the special constables will be fully deployed,” she said.

In the pilot project, the special constables will also be able to direct traffic at a protest, crime scene or vehicle collision, freeing up sworn officers to attend other calls.

The pilot project will include appointing three members of the RCMP to OPS special-constable status, and also re-deploying nine special constables who are already working for the OPS in other roles, Stubbs said.

If the pilot program is successful and becomes permanent, more special constables will need to be hired, Stubbs said.

In Ontario, special constables are sworn peace officers who take the same oath of office as a police officer, “and are granted all or some of the authorities of a police officer depending on how their roles are defined,” according to the Ontario Special Constables Association.

Throughout the province, about 3,000 special constables work for different agencies, including public transit, university campuses, community housing and government security.

“While the Police Services Act of Ontario permits Special Constables to obtain the same powers as police constables, specific powers, territorial jurisdictions, and responsibilities are outlined within the terms of the individual appointment,” the association’s website says.

Coun. David Hill praised the pilot project, saying, “At first blush, this is exactly the kind of outside-the-box proposals that I think we need to get results for our residents.”

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