The City of New Westminster is taking steps to ensure the physical and mental safety of its staff after a Burnaby RCMP officer was killed on the job last week.
Burnaby RCMP Const. Shaelyn Yang died after being stabbed Oct. 18 during an altercation when accompanying a City of Burnaby parks employee, who was conducting outreach at a homeless camp in a Burnaby park.
Jackie Teed, who was acting director of the climate action, planning and development department at the time of Yang’s death, sent an email to the affected staff team which stated, in part:
“I’m so sorry for the stress you all must be feeling following the tragic death of a police officer responding to a homelessness situation yesterday,” Teed wrote. “Your work is so challenging as it is. And the death of someone in a situation that is the same as you or your teammates find yourselves in on a daily basis, is heartbreaking, and scary.”
Emilie Adin, director of climate action, planning and development, said the city is primarily focusing on supporting the team, not only in terms of their safety, but in terms of immediate and long-term stress support, and training opportunities.
“Right now, in responding to calls for houseless and street-entrenched residents, we are reiterating safety procedures that are already in place,” she said.
These procedures include: having two officers to each site; wearing a city vest for identification; doing a risk assessment upon approach; using a radio to stay connected; and adhering to all existing city policies with regard to street-entrenched camps and safety procedures. Risk management procedures, such as leaving if occupant(s) escalate their response to having city staff attend, are also being followed.
“Our focus going forward is that we will continue ongoing training for: safety awareness, trauma, addiction, mental health, conflict resolution and leadership,” Adin said.
Adin said Teed, Diane Merenick (the city’s new manager of bylaw enforcement), the city’s management team and colleagues in the New Westminster Police Department have all been incredibly supportive and have offered resources and supports to city staff.
“We are looking into best practices from other municipalities. From those we have already connected with, we seem to be on par with their practices,” she said. “We will continue to look for ways to enhance the safety and perceptions of safety for our staff teams at the city.”
Police offer supports
At the time of Yang’s death, Chief Const. Dave Jansen said two New West police officers were in Ontario, on behalf of the NWPD, to honour two South Simcoe police officers who were killed on the job. On the afternoon of her death, he met with all on-duty staff and discussed supports that are available to staff if needed.
“It's just incredibly sad,” he said.
Jansen said the incident has not prompted any changes to NWPD policies at this time. He said police officers’ training is always being re-evaluated, so it would be adapted if it’s determined that anything needs to be done differently.
“The idea that there's a routine call is, I think, becoming more and more evident to everyone in the community that there's no such thing as a routine call,” he said.
Jansen said the city takes the lead on the majority of calls related to homelessness.
“If there was some risk or some criminality that became known, then city staff would connect with our team and we would make a determination if it should be a police officer going there instead or going in accompaniment,” he said. “I will say, in the short-term we have offered to the city to have some officers available to them, if their staff deem it appropriate and they feel … a little bit more comfortable having a uniformed police officer there.”
Jansen said the NWPD formerly had an officer working as a vulnerable persons liaison officer, but it was an unfunded position and was created by moving resources around within the department. When that officer retired from the NWPD earlier this year, the position was not filled.
In the immediate aftermath of last week’s fatal stabbing, Jansen said the NWPD’s civilian staff offered to take on work from Burnaby staff if they needed to grieve. Plainclothes members who normally work in specialty squads put on their uniforms and went out in the road in case Burnaby needed some assistance in responding to calls.
“Some of our support staff did go to Burnaby to assist at that time. We also had some uniformed members, that are part of some of our integrated teams, that were also up in Burnaby providing support,” he said. “As is amazing in policing, everybody steps up, and they had lots of support and other areas, too. We didn't deploy any more resources than that, but we certainly offered up that support to Burnaby.”
Jansen said the NWPD also reached out to city hall and offered the support of its critical incident team staff members for city employees who do similar types of work to what was being done when Yang and a parks employee attended Broadway Park.
“Nothing compares to what the Yang family is going through, the RCMP,” he said, “but it does have a ripple effect throughout the community.”
Jansen reached out to the B.C. RCMP and to the Burnaby RCMP detachment to offer condolences on behalf of the police department and the community.
The New Westminster Police Department’s flag has been lowered and members are wearing a memorial ribbon on their uniform. Both will continue until after Yang’s funeral, which will be attended by a large contingent of New West police officers.
