Edmonton police chief responds after detainees were released in Chinatown

As you know, recent detainee drop-offs in Chinatown, raising a number of safety concerns. How is EPS involved or even notified when these drop-offs happen, when detainees are released, I should say more specifically? Well, the easy answer is we weren't notified. At all? No. And so, you know, this raised that issue. I've had several meetings over the last couple of weeks with, you know, corrections, RCMP, we're having a meeting with them this week, for instance, because they were also bringing people to the city and there are locations you know you have shelter systems you have the Thunderbird Centre at Boyle you now have the Navigation Centre at the Bissell we have our Integrated Stabilization Centre and it's bringing everybody to the table and so far I mean it's been receptive so what I understand what the province is doing through corrections is they're going to put somebody in remand prior to release to work with that individual see what do they need where they need to go and then also maybe establishing drop-off points at the Hope Shelter. Wouldn't this be something, it's not like dropping off detainees to say a social services location would be new. So what really happened here that EPS wasn't aware of it? Where did this gap come from? You know, there's so many different entities working in these locations and with individuals like this, but they're not connected. And that's the biggest thing. And, you know, I think it's a lack of governance, it's a lack of coordination, and it's trying to get everybody to the table and say, you know, what is best for these individuals? what's best for the community. Did there used to be a connection between EPS and Corrections? It's not as firm as you'd like. Okay. So then how are you working with the province? How are you working with these different entities to bolster this, to make it better? Yeah, definitely working with the ministry, public safety ministry. They have Corrections under them. You know, working with them to understand that problem, communicating to the community has been really important, meeting with Chinatown. We've got some meetings scheduled with them coming up as well and try to continue to solve some of the problems that they occur. You know, but the ministry has been very responsive. And it was immediately, they're like, yeah, we see that gap in navigation services. So immediately responding to that has been, you know, it's good.