Brandon police station expansion will add jail cells, but city also needs sobering centre: chief

An $8.6-million expansion to the Brandon Police Service's headquarters is underway, which will add more detention cells — but the city's police chief, mayor and community advocates all say the city also needs a sobering centre for people detained while they're intoxicated.

Construction on the new addition to the police service building on Victoria Avenue and 10th Street in the southwestern Manitoba city began Monday, and will include more office space in addition to 17 more detainment cells. There are currently six permanent cells and six temporary cells.

The province is funding the expansion, and the City of Brandon will cover its operating costs.

That expansion was necessary after a change in 2020 to a long-standing agreement between the police service and the Brandon Correctional Centre.

Police Chief Wayne Balcaen said in the past, people held under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act — which allows officers to detain someone if they are intoxicated and police fear they are a danger to themselves or others — could be held at the Brandon Correctional Centre.

But that's no longer possible, after the agreement for direct lockup use was not renewed, Balcaen said.

"We have to now house our own prisoners. So for the first 24 hours, either until sober or until they've been remanded into custody, they are our responsibility," Balcaen said. "We did not have the facilities for that."

He says the calls police respond to are evolving as Manitoba's second-largest city grows. Brandon faces increasing alcohol and substance use issues, he said, resulting in more interventions during calls for service and the potential need for detainment.

Alternatives to detention

Balcaen says there are discussions between service providers, the city, the police and the province to construct a $2-million sobering assessment centre.

That facility would give police a place to take people who are under the influence of intoxicants, where they would also get a level of care they can't get in a jail cell.

"For people that have addictions or that have substance use disorders, mental health disorders, that helps us greatly," Balcaen said. 

"There's other social programs within the community, but when it comes to non-compliance and people that need to be detained until sober, the police service is the only option right now."

Brandon Mayor Rick Chrest also says there are increasingly complex social issues as the city grows.

An important step going forward will be the sobering assessment centre, which will be similar to the Main Street Project in Winnipeg, he said.

"That will help to alleviate, you know, some of the detention considerations" for intoxicated people who "haven't committed a crime but they're … not maybe capable of caring for themselves."

Sobering centres allow someone to be detained until they can care for themselves, or can be released to someone else.

"Right now, the only place we have are the detention facilities, whereas the long-term objective would be to have something that's probably a little more appropriate."

Chrest said there is a drive to deal with the root causes of social issues, instead of responding to the symptoms that are visible on the streets.

Addiction a health issue, 'not a criminality issue'

Ross Robinson says addiction is a mental health issue. He co-chairs the Brandon Community Wellness Collaborative, which brings agencies together to find strategies to tackle core community issues.

"It's not a law issue, it's not a criminality issue, and it deserves the same attention as medical care and other health issues," Robinson said.

"These are people who have a health issue which puts them in unsafe situations and potentially puts them in a place where they could be a distance from others."

He says addressing those issues is a complicated conundrum for the community — organizations like Brandon police or the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba cannot provide solutions on their own, because those solutions must be community driven, says Ross.

"We need a partnership with police where they would continue to treat intoxication as a health issue rather than as a policing issue," he said. "It's a health issue that means we need to address things a little different."

The proposed sobering assessment centre will be a critical piece of the puzzle. The facility is the top priority for the Community Wellness Collaborative, and funding has been received by the Department of Justice.

"It's a big project and it can't run just on that money alone," said Robinson. "So we need to kind of collaborate, get other agencies together and organize to make it happen."