Community groups accuse VPD officers of loitering outside supervised drug consumption sites

A collection of groups that work in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside say there's been an increase in police officer presence outside Insite and other supervised drug consumption sites in the neighbourhood, resulting in people being deterred from accessing harm-reduction services.

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) has a policing strategy underway meant to crack down on organized and violent crime in the neighbourhood — which includes more officers. But a spokesperson said it's a "false narrative" that officers are loitering outside the harm-reduction sites.

The claim comes from Police Oversight With Evidence and Research (POWER), a research project founded last year by Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) and Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society (WAHRS). Pivot Legal Society is also calling on the VPD to avoid having a presence outside the sites.

"Being present outside, without any sort of call is, we would say, doing more harm than good," said Caitlin Shane, a staff lawyer with Pivot.

According to Shane, in the last few months, POWER has received an increase in complaints from staff at Insite and other supervised consumption sites about police either blocking entrances, loitering or parking VPD cars outside. 

"What we're hearing, particularly from service providers, as well as patrons, is that this police presence is deterring people from accessing the life-saving services inside," she said.

The anecdotal accounts of the effects of police presence at the sites are supported by peer-reviewed research into the issue, published in 2019 in the International Journal of Drug Policy.

The groups included two specific examples in their media release. Both are reports from March of a VPD cruiser being parked outside Insite, in the 100-block of East Hastings Street for an extended period. Two of the provided images appear to show unoccupied vehicles, while a third appears to show one of the same vehicles with headlight on.

"The notion that a parked and unoccupied police car would deter somebody is, quite frankly, silly," said VPD's Sgt. Steve Addison on Tuesday. "The narrative these organizations are spinning to the media is detached from reality on the streets."

Shane maintains that whether or not a police vehicle is occupied, it can have an impact on the number of people using the facility — and she claims it's part of a broader pattern in recent months.

Informal agreement?

According to Shane, there's an agreement in place between staff at Insite and the VPD to not block the entrance or otherwise deter access. She's asking that the agreement be honoured and formalized.

Addison, speaking on behalf of the police department, said he's not aware of any such agreement.

Shane said there's internal correspondence from VPD and Pivot in 2022 confirming the existence of the informal policy for officers not to block access to supervised consumption sites, but the fact that Addison isn't aware of it reinforces the need to formalize it.

According to Addison, officers are supportive of the harm-reduction facilities and "have a tremendous amount of compassion" for the people struggling with drug addiction in the community.

Last year, 2,253 people were killed by unregulated drugs in British Columbia, according to the B.C. Coroners Service.

"We encourage people to use supervised consumption sites, harm-reduction sites, as opposed to using on the street, but it hasn't been an enforcement priority for many, many years for us to arrest, jail, prosecute people in the Downtown Eastside who are living with substance use issues," said Addison.

Task Force Barrage

Addison said that since mid-February, the policing strategy in the Downtown Eastside, dubbed Task Force Barrage, has included an increase in officers in the neighbourhood, Chinatown and Gastown — and perhaps that could explain the increase around supervised consumption sites.

"Just by virtue of the fact we've got more officers out there, you're going to see more there," he said.

VPD received an additional $5 million for Task Force Barrage, on top of the force's $453 million budget for 2025.