The jury at the inquest into the police shooting death of an Elmvale man is looking at specialized registry for vulnerable persons.
When police responded to a 911 call about an assault on June 22, 2009 in Elmvale the officer didn’t know the accused person was developmentally delayed. That person was 59-year-old Douglas Minty. At the coroner’s inquest into Minty’s death, the jury heard how Minty approached the responding officer with a penknife.
“The officer did what he had to do – unfortunately in this situation he had to defend himself. There was no information that would have assisted him to have responded to this particular call any differently,” says Andrew McKay, Counsel for Officer Jeffery Seguin.
Some forces in Ontario have developed specialized registries that give officers more information as they are responding to calls. The registries let them know if a vulnerable person, like Douglas Minty, might be involved. This gives officers more time to figure out the best way to respond.
“When an officer is dispatched to a call and a person is on the registry the information will appear immediately on the officers screen with a tough on his laptop as he’s responding to an emergency and the dispatcher will provide that same information verbally over the air,” says Ottawa Police Staff Sergeant Jamie Dunlop.
The registry used by Ottawa Police is voluntary. So far more than 600 people have signed up. The information is completely secure and can only be accessed internally.
Constable Jim Adams helped launch a similar program last year with Peel Regional Police.
“Things like their basic name, date of birth, address but also things like medical conditions, places that they might be attracted to if they go wandering, methods of approaching the person and methods of de-escalation.”
They have fewer than 80 people signed up. He says so far it is working.
“So far it’s been good, a number of officers have used the registry a few times to de-escalate a situation so it has helped our frontline officers which is key.”
The need to equip officers with more information has been a key theme throughout this inquest.
“What I’m hoping the jury will decide is that perhaps there should be some overarching, provincial wide registry that touches not only on autism, not only on dementia and Alzheimer’s but on developmentally delayed individuals and other mental health issues,” says Thomas Fitzgerald, counsel for the coroner.
Some lawyers at the inquest say had more information been made available, it’s possible the events surrounding Douglas Minty’s death may have been different.
