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Each year, approximately one in five people will experience a mental health problem or illness. The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) is a recognized leader in policing for its multifaceted and innovative approach to supporting persons living with mental health issues. Further, the VPD appreciates that persons living with mental health issues are, sadly, often targeted by offenders – resulting in them being 15 times more likely to be the victim of a crime.

Even the smallest agency needs a critical incident response plan. Small municipal police services that rely on mutual aid agreements are still the primary agency, and are just one call away from a critical incident that could cripple their response capacity. No town, location or community is exempt from violence and catastrophe. It’s too late when chaos erupts. 

Incidents in rural areas, like the recent mass killings in rural Nova Scotia, tell us that our agencies can’t call for assistance and stand by to wait for the cavalry to arrive. 

Like many other leaders in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors in the 2000s, as a senior police executive in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the United Nations (UN), I saw the critical importance of leadership in dealing with the various problems, issues and challenges that were present at the time.