Families bring attention to deaths in police custody

March 15 was International Day Against Police Brutality, with about 200 gathering to listen to drumming, families of those affected and show solidarity. The rally and march was organized by Winnipeg Police Cause Harm, a volunteer based group that was formed in 2019 after the deaths of several people in confrontation with the police. At the rally, the names of the nine deceased in the last year were read out, which include three whose names were not known. Jody Beardy, the partner of Elias Whitehead (37) who died last fall, gave an emotional appeal. She asked, “How can those who should serve justice do what they did? That leaves a wound that never fully heals? Elias was a good man, kind and loving. We cannot turn a blind eye to this problem.” Whitehead died in hospital in police custody after being arrested for acting erradically on a Winnipeg street. His death is still being investigated.

Appeals are being made to redirect increased police funding to alternative mental health crisis response teams that can de-escalate situations without the need for police involvement. Social Planning Council of Winnipeg Executive Director and PAC (Policy Accountability Coalition) member Kate Kehler expressed her thoughts in a recent media release calling police to account.

“We in Winnipeg are very clearly heading in the wrong direction,” she says in the news release. “ At a recent inquest into 5 deaths in police custody, that is 5 previous deaths, not the most recent ones, a police use-of-force expert said that all that is needed is for more police to show up at calls and have the paramedics arrive earlier so the person in distress can be subdued faster and then medicated. One can only assume this would be against their free will in these circumstances. How could this not just perpetuate harm?” (The Case for a Civilian Led Crisis Response Objectives, March 13, 2024)

Abdikheir Ahmed, PAC Co-chair commented in the same release that, “we do understand that there are inherent risks of a situation escalating. However, what the WPS approach does not recognize is that some people, due to their particular condition, substance used, past bad experiences with police etc… are actually escalated by a police presence. Just because a situation does not end in violence does not mean it was necessarily a success or as successful as it could have been.”

The rally, supported by this coalition of groups, was in response to the recent City of Winnipeg mayor and council proposal to fund police an increase in millions of dollars, but cut other services because of budget shortfalls.

Over the next four years, the Winnipeg Police’s total annual budget (which includes all revenue sources, including provincial funding) is set to increase from 2023 figures by $36.5 million, hitting $363.5 million in 2027. The city’s contribution to this, reported as “mill rate support” due to its funding from property taxes, will increase by $30.9 million over this span, reaching $312.2 million per year in 2027.

Bev Solomon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Leaf