A report to the Vancouver Police Board says the department is committed to adopting both recommendations from a coroner's inquest into the beating death of Myles Gray, but advocates say key concerns remain unaddressed.
The report was briefly discussed at Thursday’s board meeting, with VPD Chief Adam Palmer telling CTV News the department supports all recommendations, including the use of body cameras and enhanced crisis de-escalation training for officers – especially in situations where someone is experiencing a mental-health disturbance.
The report states that police have been in the process of deploying body cameras for several years and that a pilot project is set to begin this fall for 100 officers.
However, police are not considering major changes to their training programs, some of which are referred to in the report as "leading edge."
In August 2015, the initial 911 call on the day the 33-year-old Gray died was about an agitated man who was behaving erratically and who had sprayed a woman with a garden hose.
Gray died after a beating by police that left him with injuries including ruptured testicles and fractures in his eye socket, nose, voice box and rib.
Melissa Gray, Myles' sister, told CTV News that police will need significantly more than body cameras if any real change is to occur.
“I just don’t know that police body cameras are going to solve that. Like, if somebody is a bully and is there to just not de-escalate or not be compassionate or help someone in need, what is a body camera really going to do?” said Gray. “I think that this meeting they’re having – they’re just going through the motions. They’re just trying to save face and look like they’re trying to work on their issues.”
In a statement released by Pivot Legal Society, the policy director for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association says the police report “leads the reader to believe that everything is fine at the (department) – short of implementing body-worn cameras.”
Meghan McDermott says the department “insists that its approach to crisis de-escalation is fine and dandy,” though she says police are using the same practices they did at the time Gray died.
CTV News asked Palmer if the police response would be any different if the Gray call happened today.
“I’m not going to play what ifs," the police chief said.
"What I am going to say is that our officers are faced with very dynamic situations. Every day they go out on the street. Every situation is different. There will be occasions sometimes where somebody may possibly lose their life. We never want that to happen, but it’s possible.”
At Thursday’s meeting, members of the board requested more details from police regarding their mental health training programs.
With files from The Canadian Press
