The average amount of time police officers spend dealing with mental health calls has declined compared to last year, but those calls remain a major expense for the department, according to a report presented Thursday to the Edmonton Police Commission.

In the first half of 2016, the average number of hours spent on each Mental Health Act incident was 7.5 hours, down from 9.2 hours during the same period in 2015.

Under the law, police must be involved in any apprehension under the act, and must remain until the individual is handed over to Alberta Health for an assessment by a doctor. Officers often spend significant time on hospital guard duty, while patients wait for assessment.

Image | Scott McKeen

Caption: Coun. Scott McKeen thinks more social housing would alleviate some of the pressures on the police department and the health-care system. (CBC)

Load Image

"One of the issues we have with the high cost of policing in Edmonton is that we ask them to do everything," said Coun. Scott McKeen, who represents city council on the Edmonton Police Commission.

"They have referred to themselves as the social service agency of first response, and in that case they're almost the health agency of first response," said McKeen. "They're highly trained professionals. Should they not be dealing with crime and violent crime and property crime?"

McKeen said he understands officers are sometimes needed in such situations but said the costs are enormous.

"The police say it's one-third of their resources go to deal with social disorder," said McKeen. "And that would probably be social disorder, mental health calls, issues related to homelessness. One-third! And the city contributes $200 million to the police budget every year. So that's a lot of money."

McKeen thinks alternative measures can be found that would help.

"I've said for a while that if we got the appropriate level and amount of supportive housing in Edmonton ... we may save some money that way. But also we could have the police working on more high-priority items."

The police chief has called for a wellness centre to help deal with the issue, McKeen said, and while the councillor said he understands the department is in a tough position, he's not sure that's the answer.

"I was never a huge supporter of it, because I think we need supportive housing for those folks and that seemed more like the old line of catch and release," said McKeen, who thinks the benefits of housing would be significant. "We'll reduce calls for service to police, reduce our costs, [and] we'll reduce intakes at hospitals."

Most Edmontonians would support such measures, he said.

"Knowing what sort of Edmonton's core values are, I think most Edmontonians would want us to safely, humanely, compassionately house those people, look after them. And in doing so, we look after the negative side effects and the high cost of chasing our tail on this issue."