A Progressive Form of Law Enforcement
Canada's current drug policy has major gaps that excludes both the community it entails and also the law enforcement services that exist to protect the community. A more progressive drug policy can make better use of departments, on-the-ground officers, and the resources at their disposal.
Key benefits Of Decriminalization for Law enforcement
A Community Based Approach
More Treatment, Safer Streets
A Community Based Approach
The Vancouver Police Department gives officers the choice to pursue or not to pursue possession charges. Possession charges are almost never pursued. Progressive drug policy allows for a method of policing that veers away from deterrence and puts the focus on building relationships with a community that often goes unheard.
Shelter from the Storm
More Treatment, Safer Streets
A Community Based Approach
Harm reduction is a crucial step in the path to recovery. With this knowledge, police can serve as guardians of the road to treatment. This can be in simple ways like informing community members of the resources available to them such as safe injection sites or treatment centers. Harm reduction also takes the form of more urgent tasks like stopping fatal drug mixtures from circulating or warning users when they're at risk.
More Treatment, Safer Streets
More Treatment, Safer Streets
Making Taxpayer's Dollars Count
Reallocating funding used to deter addiction into treatment leads to benefits that keep communities safer and make policing easier. Increased funding into treatment and harm reduction leads to decreased drug-related litter, decreased high-risk injection practice, and decreased public injection.
Making Taxpayer's Dollars Count
Making Taxpayer's Dollars Count
Making Taxpayer's Dollars Count
A reoccurring theme in all research on progressive drug policy is cost-efficiency. It makes all the sense in the world. Progressive drug policy leads to less incarcerated citizens and lower jail costs. Money that is being spent making a health crisis worse can be reallocated into helping the solution.
Call in the Experts
Making Taxpayer's Dollars Count
Call in the Experts
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders stated "I embrace that idea, where someone creates something where we don't go at all" in regards to police being first responders to mental health crises. When it comes to the issue of addiction, the brunt of the work belongs to the public health sector, not the police. Drug policy reform can help relieve Canadian police a great deal of unnecessary weight.