Officers at the Nanaimo RCMP detachment underwent two half-day sessions with a psychologist this week about the wide variety of calls they respond to. (file photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Spencer Sterritt

increasing pressure

‘The toll on our members is excruciating:’ Nanaimo’s top cop speaks out

Jun 24, 2020 | 5:33 AM

NANAIMO — Despite the body armour they wear, Nanaimo RCMP officers aren’t invulnerable

Nanaimo RCMP Supt. Cameron Miller spoke to Nanaimo city councillors on Monday, June 22, called forward to answer questions about a new initiative in the Old City Quarter.

As the discussion moved away from the specific program into general policing, Miller discussed how Nanaimo RCMP are increasingly called on to handle issues outside their realm of responsibility.

“The toll on my members is excruciating,” Miller told councillors. “I have a psychologist coming in to put on half-day sessions for my entire detachment about how to cope. I don’t want any of my team to have to take a knee, I’d rather be proactive.”

Miller stressed officers are responding to more mental health and addictions calls and being asked questions they don’t have answers to.

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“The people on Wesley St. in a make-shift tent city are saying every morning ‘Where is it you want us to go?’ It’s a problem, it’s not a police problem. Housing is not a police responsibility, public safety is.”

He shared a story of a woman who was arrested on Sunday under the Mental Health Act for attempting to cut her wrists and also walk into traffic on Wakesiah Ave.

“There was a number of citizens in the community saying ‘Get out of our community, we don’t want you here, we want a mental health officer or a doctor to come to this file.’ If someone can figure out how to get VIHA to come with us to files, bring it on. Mental health problems are not police problems.”

Miller’s appearance before council didn’t delve further into the issue of calls to defund the police.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @SpencerSterritt