After a seven hour standoff between a barricaded individual and about a dozen visible members of Waterloo regional police, a Cambridge woman was transported to hospital without incident on Tuesday.
Police shut down a portion of Park Hill Road East shortly before noon to deal with an individual who was threatening to harm herself.
Police chief Mark Crowell said police had reason to believe the individual was in possession of a weapon.
"There was a distraught female with weapons indicating suicidal concerns so we responded with our IMPACT team through the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA)," said Crowell. "This was a high risk situation of life or death."
Around 20 WRPS service vehicles along with tactical police equipped with riot shields, suppression firearms and ramming devices stood on by while CMHA social workers negotiated with the women inside the house.
During and after the incident, there were concerns on social media criticizing the police for the large response. Throughout the incident, police said there was no threat to public safety. The heavy police presence covered the street for over five hours.
"Do we really to spend all these resources over one person barricading themselves?" asked someone on a Facebook post about the incident.
"Get a couple cars block the street and get someone that works in mental health to help them. For the amount of money being spent we could’ve actually got her the help she probably needs and now most likely they will get minimal help if they are lucky"
Communications manager for WRPS, Cherri Greeno said in an emailed statement to CambridgeToday, that when officers arrived on the scene they identified weapons inside of the residence, which prompted the large response.
After successfully transporting the individual to hospital, weapons were located in the home, but no charges were laid. Greeno could not confirm what kind of weapons were found but said they were not firearms.
Crowell acknowledges the criticism, but stands by his officers' response.
"It was successfully, over time, de-escalated and the person was ultimately transferred into safe care," he added.
He wants the community to know that police are open to any constructive criticism and welcomes public feedback on how they can better serve the community.
Starting in November 2022, WRPS launched a new way of dealing with mental health calls. They moved towards a more compassionate approach, involving CMHA professionals and diverting calls away from the police switch board to trained mental health workers.
The IMPACT team is headed by CMHA professionals and will sometimes require a police team to assist them if necessary.
The incident on Park Hill Road was an example of this directive in action, Crowell said. CMHA worked in tandem with police to negotiate and safely bring the individual to get urgent care.
"Everyday we are seeing people in crisis where they're reaching out for help, facing mental health concerns and sometimes they do involve weapons and suicide risk," said Crowell. "Our front-line deployment is there to serve those people in need and our capacity for negotiation response is tremendous."
Police are always looking to involve mental health specialist or experts to enhance or to take over that call for service, he added.
